Reply With Quotewhat appears to be the problem?
Dreambox 7020/7025 Owners please read
Just thought I would bring to the attention of anyone who owns a genuine Dreambox 7020 or 7025 (not sure about the clones as I have not seen one yet) that is a couple of years old or more, that they should get the power supply checked by a technician before it blows up completely. I have had a number of power supplies in for repair over the last week and it is quite obvious that they are getting too hot and when summer hits, they will only get hotter. If you catch them early they will be repairable, but if you leave them too long, it is almost certain that your going to be up for a new power supply as they are a very complex unit. So not likely to be cheap to replace.
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what appears to be the problem?
From a uneducated, non eletrical based backgroung, going purely on age of units I would say failing caps to be the cause.
well that's my 2cents anyways
luckily i bought an extra one from z80 when i got my 7020 clone.....
DM7000 has been running 24/7 for nearly 5 or more years now. Even added a fan to the 5 volt rail. Which i will remove today as it only seems to have made the unit more unstable.
Of the 3 DM7020 (clones) i have had, i would agree, the PSU are complete rubbish from straight out of the box.
Singing away, failed boot ups... its a mixed bag really, some are good others are nearly DOA.
But as i say, the old DM7000 is still plugging away. But i have been thinking the same thing... before something bad happens, perhaps have it checked and get a few caps replaced before it does more damage.
Some critical low esr caps are going open, short, high impedance etc and there is also a few area's which are getting very hot and require attention to fix a potential dry joint that would lead to the power supply self destructing if it loses connection. Also the start up caps are doing the same. Thanks to the silly design of the heatsinks wrapping over the top of a lot of caps and the fact that they are located right on top of regulators, im surprised a lot more havnt died yet.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
Oceanboy - The 7000 psu is an abomination of a design and I can almost guarantee that every cap in the board will be totally stuff by now. They are one of the hardest boards to work on too thanks to the multilayer board design and through hole soldering and lead free solder. Almost every cap on the 7000 was rated only just high enough and should be replaced with at least double the voltage rating that is currently there, which is easier said than done due to physical size of some of the caps.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
Don't tell me that, i'll have sleepless night now mateOriginally Posted by cwispy
Mmmmm i have been wondering how long this thing will last. It has outlasted plenty of other stuff i have bought. House has 3 levels of surge protection, which is probably nothing for a sensitive thing like the Dream, but i like to think it helps. The DM7000 has had a 160gig 5400 HDD in it for 4 of its 5 or 6 years of running. I dropped the cap mod in earlier this year which helped on HDD start up, but somehow didn't help the general running of the unit. Or perhaps that was Pli Jade
In your opinion cwispy, would you take it to a tech and spend the money while also risking he stuffs it? Or just nurse it along mate?
I have a genuine unit ( about 2 years old ) with a 400 gig HD installed and have had problems in summer with heat problems. I might swap places with it and the 500 this year as its in a cooler enviroment.
If you can find someone who is happy to look at it, I would get them to replace all the caps in the psu with higher voltage rated, low esr ones. If you cant find someone locally and your willing to post it, your welcome to send it over to me in Perth. I still think they are worth spending a little money on as they are. Once fixed, it will almost work like it did when it was new.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
What i have done with other DM7020s in other properties is run a 150mm or 180mm "silent" computer fan directly on top of the unit (over the PSU) pushing air down into the box and hopefully out the side. The fan runs low rpm, you 100% can not hear them and they $10ea from my local PC store.
I just power them from a DC power supply from DSE or Jaycar $12 or something. We all know heat is the No.1 killer for anything electrical and i have noticed great improvement in the units where i have fitted the fans.
Remote control always responds fast etc.... Just seems cheap insurance to me. And some of these DM7020 have been fitted in cabinets with closing doors.... bit of a must really.
That is a great idea. No need to modify anything then. And running from a separate power pack it wont be generating more heat from the power supply in the dream. You should post links to the unit you used on the dse website for others who might be interested in doing the same thing.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
Mmmmm when new it had "Traveller" image on it i think.... don't remember it working that well
hehe you cant blame the hardware for having a poor image on it.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
Ok...
The Power Supply i used for the fan is something like this
And the fan is something like this
Although i just bought the fan from a Asian Computer shop in Geelong. It was just straight of the counter out of a box of 10, for $10.
The other thing i have done, is run 2 x 80mm fans, they run a bit noisey, so i just wired them in series and now you can hardly here them at all
In this case i run the 120mm fan directly on the Dreambox and the 2 x 80mm behind a grilled vent expelling air out and away from the cabinet. They all run off the one plug-in power supply. Easy as, i even dropped a switch in the 2 x 80mm fans if i want to turn them off during winter. Could of got all fancy and ran a thermostat to control them, but hey, i'm lazy
To be honest, i have gone away from using interanl fans off the internal PSU. This way no extra load goes on the Dreambox, no structural mods are made, the fan is completely removable and in no way attached to the Dreambox itself. Thus the Dreambox stays in a warranty state. You can swap boxes, use it for other equipment. It just seems simple and easy. And most of all, its works 5 times better than any small diameter fan ever did.
I sold a lot of the clone 7020's and have only had one complaint by someone who probably stuffed it.
The clones use a panasonic part number.
Are you saying that you haven't seen a clone 7020 yet? (in post #1)
I expect i would have heard something by now.
The only design probem I could see was the 7812 regulator heatsink was a bit light-on considering it was being used at the maximum current.
And maybe some messy component insertion....
They Power supply is not an expensive unit....$14 US was last time I looked.
Maybe mount one of these above the PSU and run it off 5V instead of 12V.
May look a tad ugly though
Maybe mount one of these above the PSU and run it off 5V instead of 12V.
May look a tad ugly though
I run the quitest 50mm 12Vdc fan Jaycar sold and ran it off the 5v rail.
It is still way too noisey, when you walk in the lounge first thing in the morning, it is louder than the fridge
Nothing bad has happened yet.... so it might be all fine. But i'd rather run it another way
That's right. I have not had a clone 7020 psu come through yet. I would like to see one to compare against the genuine versions. There are also different revisions of the psu in the originals as the manufacturing process developed.
What would you do if your server was stolen or failed beyond repair?
http://www.2000cn.com.au/shadowprotect.html
can email you some photos if you want?
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