Thank you Martin for the detailed report! I wonder how many of those
machines are still around, just in case a fully working calculator can be
put together from parts. But probably the display is the toughest component
in there!

Maybe the damage was caused by a lightning strike, at least I experienced
similar faults when I tried repairs after those events. Hard!

Congratulations for fixing the PSU.
Paolo


Il Mar 22 Ott 2019, 01:38 Dekatron42 <[email protected]> ha scritto:

> Well, the ZM1200 Pandicon is working as it should on all digits, but the
> calculator itself isn't, it is almost completely dead. There are only four
> signals from the main board to the Pandicon board that shows any life
> whatsoever, a pity now that the power supply works.
>
> The power supply is not such a good design because when you switch it off
> the oscillator for the transformer goes into self oscillation and the UJT
> controlling the SCR also drives the SCR into full conduction which means
> that at the moment of switching off the output voltages rises a lot! There
> is no regulation feedback on the output voltages and maybe this poor design
> is the reason for the calculator not working, just guessing here but the
> voltages were several 10's of volts higher than written on the circuit
> board just at switch off and you can see flashes inside the Pandicon. Maybe
> a fully working calculator doesn't see this over-voltage spikes but I think
> it will even if it draws more power working.
>
> There were a lot more bad soldering, dry joints and corrosion on the main
> board, it smells like a rat has peed on it and it looks like that in some
> places. I cleaned all of the corroded areas and checked all of the traces
> and components. Now, the 10% resistors are at least 10% high so those might
> affect the overall workings, might change some to see if that differs. I
> changed two small electrolytic capacitors looking like Tantalum bead
> capacitors but that didn't change anything. Transistors and diodes are ok,
> but I had to re-solder a few of them as I could easily see the dry joints
> and also measure the dry joint as I only got contact when touching the pin
> of the transistor and not the trace it was soldered to, as is the keyboard
> magnetic switches but the ic's all are non responsive, not a single pulse
> anywhere except for the four signals to the Pandicon board.
>
> Well, it was the Pandicon I was after knowing that the seller had
> disconnected the power supply due to problems previously, but it would have
> been nice if the calculator had worked.
>
> So, if anyone has any ideas on what to check to get it running I would be
> happy if you could write a line here or send me a message offline.
>
> I hope someone can have use for the circuit diagram of the power supply.
>
> /Martin
>
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