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HC300 Power Supply DIY


seangreer

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I had two HC300 units fail in the field in different locations and Control4 wanted $220 each plus shipping to repair them. Nothing against the repair department, but that is way out of line pricing.

For the DIY crew, the part number for the power supply board is PSA15LN3-050-R and can be had from Mouser for $19. There is a total of 4 screws inside and 8 outside to get to the board. The repair takes less than 10 minutes. At any electronic store, this is under $125 even with a markup and a minimum charge. I'm looking at $45 / unit with time and shipping accounted for.

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You are way undervaluing your time, for starters.

For any reasonable sized operation, you have an employee to pay, healthcare, 401K, payroll taxes, the 100 sq ft of work area, desk, handtools, training, 10 paid holidays, vacation and sick time, not to mention factors of employee efficiency.

Then you have your power supply, inventory carrying cost, and some reasonable markup of maybe 30 to 50% on parts.

Finally, there is some level of warranty on the work (I am guessing here), which probably has some value in an actuarial table somewhere.

And you want that for $45?

Personally, I would be happy that I could get the product serviced at all, being that we live in this disposable society.

But hey, if you want to do it yourself, more power to you!

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You are way undervaluing your time, for starters.

For any reasonable sized operation, you have an employee to pay, healthcare, 401K, payroll taxes, the 100 sq ft of work area, desk, handtools, training, 10 paid holidays, vacation and sick time, not to mention factors of employee efficiency.

^ Now, Obama has won, GOOD LUCK TO YOUR DREAM..

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks. Got it and replaced the power supply. Once I found the right screws, the rest was pretty easy. HC300 is now working, again. Given that this particular box serves as the ZAP coordinator, I figure I just saved myself about $2,000 for a new HC250 and all the associated dealer reprogramming of the mesh.

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  • 5 months later...

The power board on my HC 300 failed, and I have taken it apart.  The part # for the board at Mouser is made by Phihong, while the one in my Control 4 was made by Dongah Elecomm. 

 

Can I replace the Dongah Elecomm with the power board from Phihong? 

 

Thank you, in advance, for your help.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 year later...

FWIW - my failure rate on the OEM Dohgah power supply has been 100% within 5 years. OK so it's a small sample set - two of two units. Both have been replaced with the Phihong supply and now one of those has failed within a year. Both HC300s are on substantial surge protectors with battery back-ups. I think the problem is that both supplies are the bottom of the barrel of the lowest form of made in China crap. Unfortunately no one makes this class of power supply outside of China, but I'm replacing this time with a TDK-Lambda unit. Hopefully it lasts longer than a year or two.

 

And hopefully Control4 has upgraded this weak link in newer hardware.

 

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  • 2 months later...

My HC-300 power supply went on fritz. I located a power supply but I need the cable! I can't find one quite like it online. Its a 4 pin female connector with 2 wires on one end and a 2 pin female connector with 2 wires on the other.

 

Anyone have a spare from an old unit?

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I have never had a 300 fail.  

 

And hopefully Control4 has upgraded this weak link in newer hardware.

What!?  I needed a good Sat. afternoon laugh.  Control4 has no more of a problem with 300 PSs than, say, Netgear has with their switches and WAPs.    

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  • 10 months later...

I bought an HC-300 on eBay(I got a refund) that is dead but I may try replacing the power supply as that may be the issue. Can I temporarily just use the 5V line from a PC power supply just to ensure that the PS is the problem?

And it looks like Mouser no longer carries the Phihong PS. 

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I have taken the HC-300 apart and two of the larger capacitor that are close to the DC connector have bulges so I guess this could mean capacitor plague.  The PS is made by Dongah and has a date of 2008-08-30.

And to answer my own question, yes, you can just wire it up to the 5V line of a PC power supply.  I did that and the controller came to life.  Next step is to buy a power supply.  Mouser doesn't have them but Allied does.

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  • 1 year later...

Maybe call Allied - the part is still on their system they just have 0 in stock.  You could also try buying a used HC-300 on ebay as they seem to be going for <$50.  That's not much more than a PS, but then the PS in that unit may not last long either.

As is alluded to above - I temporarily wired one up to the hard drive power leads from a PC power supply.  If you know your way around a voltmeter you might want to give this a try.  There's nothing special here you just need a 5VDC power supply that can output 3A.

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Where are you located?

I took a quick look and it doesn't look like any of those have the same connectors.  So you may have to rewire a connector to get those to work.  And some of those are not the same size either so it might be tricky to screw them down to the case.  You might want to keep buying used HC-300s for cheap prices.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 years later...

Late to the discussion but posting for future diy's. 

Client wanted to repair rather than purchase new equipment.

Just wired in a COSEL LFA15F-5v purchased from Mouser. I also ordered the matching pigtails from Mouser. (Cosel website will tell you which pigtail needed). Had to be creative for the case mount as the PS footprint is different.

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Apparently some of those power supplies are getting harder to find.  Another idea is to buy used HC300s on ebay and use them to harvest power supplies - but who knows how long those may last either.

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