Aerogarden

[Shagreobe]

Hey ya'll, Anyone ever messed around with an aerogarden? It is a hydroponic growing system if you didnt know.

Anyway, the main board is not working, so me being me, im using an arduino nano instead.
Well, the problem im having is that the leds are not working. I have continuity and all, and all leds light with my meter, so Im lost.
the wall wart that came with it is 12VDC output, Im pulling out my hair, and I dont have that much left to begin with

Any ideas?

[CapLeaker]

Re: Aerogarden

you can read this repair: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=75114
post some good pictures of the PSU and the other boards.
Hope it helps.

[Shagreobe]

Re: Aerogarden

Here are pics of boards...The pump runs on my power supplym but the leds dont . I've checked all leds and they work with my meter, and wires all have continuity. I checked most components on the board but found nothing weird

[CapLeaker]

Re: Aerogarden

Usually these Aerogarden’s are pretty bulletproof. Mostly the capacitors die, it’s not so common for the LED’s to go. What model Aerogarden is this? The ones I dealt with had a main board and then an extra LED driver in the top were the lights are. On your pic the cap in the middle looks like the sleeve shrunk due to heat. TBH recap the board with low ESR capacitors and then try it again.

More food for thought:
Only because an LED does light up using a multimeter, does not guarantee that the LED is any good. You have to power the LED or the strip carefully up. I’ve seen quite a few LED’s that looked good with the DMM, but when power went through it, it was a different story.

[Shagreobe]

Re: Aerogarden

I tried to get the lights with my power supply, and they didnt work. Its a harvest 360, about 8 inches in diameter (203.2 mm for you metric folk ) The leds are just on a piece of metal (i think), and 2 wires come down to the board.
I did notice fb1 looks weird. there is a chunk of solder on it. maybe it shorted something.
I'll have to trace out the circuits on the lights and check each seperately

[CapLeaker]

Re: Aerogarden

before you go too crazy... try simple things first. Does this have an external wall wart? If it does, change that and see if it works. You need stable power, only because you unplug the wall wart from the unit and measure it, doesn't mean it can handle a load.

[Shagreobe]

Re: Aerogarden

Ive been using the wall wart for another 12v thing i have. Ive marked all of the traces for the lights, just need time to mess around more. Im getting close to digging out an arduino and using that lol