Dear All,
I imported a brand new hobart HL662 pizza mixer from the US, when connecting it our in house electrician connected into the wrong high voltage and burnt the controller by that the warranty is void now, our local hobart dealer sent a electrician and assessed it he said that the controller apparently is burnt for sure and that it might cost around 4,000$!! other than other possible parts which they will know after changing the controller.
The machine is using a Fuji controller, we took its specs and found a Hyundai controller with the same spec's and about 1/4 the price, I would like to know do we need to use the original controller? or this one would do as well ?
Your help & suggestions would be appreciated!
Yousuf
Truly sorry to hear about your troubles. Even if you do swap in another controller Hobart might have a proprietary firmware chip on the board that manages some aspects of the machine.
I subscribe to the "surrender and confess" adage. Call Hobart, tell them what happened, send them the picture and beg for mercy. They might have a program to help folks who fall into this type of voltage mismatch trap. They also might have a rebuilt controller that they would sell for much less.
I would call them personally and not communicate through a repair company. If you are able to negotiate a solution with Hobart you can get the repair guys to do the work for you. Your repair company has no real interest in helping you economize a solution.
Thanks for your suggestion, we reached out to hobart and they linked us to their agent in my country and they assessed it and confirmed the problem, the other problem is their agent is a rip off thats what made us import the machine from abroad, also they are very very very slow and as you know the business relies on the mixer.
Are you sure they have proprietary firmware chip on it? is there any damage that may incur if we used the other brand controller which shares the same specs? its worth trying if there is no damage to be incurred of it.
My first thought was "wow, that will cost your electrician dearly. Does he have a public liability insurance?".
That said, jimbtv says wise things that may save you both money - contact Hobart in the US and ask if they have a solution for that.
As a last resort, I would talk to an electronics professional. What usually happens after wrong voltage is applied, is the capacitors going poof! - maybe it did not manage to hit the plate itself in the first place?
BTW, is it dough in the controller box? Can't tell from the picture.
Thanks for your suggestion, as for the electrician no he doesnt unfortunately, also as I told jimbtv the manufacturer forwarded the local agent in my country which isnt responsive and is a rip off which let us import the machine from abroad.
The capacitor went poof as you said and burnt everything around it in the controller unfortunately, the thing in the box isnt dough its some gooey stuff which came out from one of the components which were burnt in the controller, if you have any other suggestion on solving this please do let us know!
I have no direct experience with this mixer or the controller, but I spent the last 38 years in the electronics industry so I am coming at this from a different perspective.
It there is a proprietary chip on the board it would be very difficult to predict its purpose. If it were simply feature firmware a different chip would probably not hurt anything. If it were responsible for voltage/amperage control a different chip could do damage.
Transformers and capacitors often use paper interlayers as insulation, along with various gels and agents for conduction and cooling. My take on the debris is a large capacitor exploded or a transformer blew out. In either case the diagnosis from afar is terminal. Any amperage that was sufficient to do that kind of damage was more than sufficient to cook many of the other components that operate on milliamps and millivolts.
I would be hesitant to stop direct communications with Hobart as yet. Hobart has a vested interest in a successful outcome. Personally I'd get the name of one of a tech support person and Fedex the controller to him/her overnight. Be sure that Hobart knows the local agent bears some responsibility for this problem. Get the names of agents in other nearby areas and work with them instead.
As was mentioned earlier, your insurance may pick-up some of the expense for this type of problem so you might want to include them in your communications.
Putting in a different controller is risky at best. It may work perfectly. It may do nothing. It may damage the motor, if it isn't damaged already, or the new board may be damaged as well. Without a better understanding of the layout and purpose of the original controller, and specific details on both the original and substitute controllers, I would be very hesitant to recommend a change.