Over the Christmas break I re-wired my “server room” at the house and I accidentally plugged in the wrong power supply to my original HDHR. The unit is supposed to run on 5 volts but I sent 12 through it. The only reason I noticed was this electrical burning smell. After taking apart the case I could tell the inductor behind the AC jack was what was heating up and creating the odor. It turns out this wasn’t the problem but rather the symptom of IC7 being blown. The support I received from Silicon Dust, the manufacturer, was amazing. Not only did they help me troubleshoot a unit who’s warranty expired years ago, but they also told me the make/model of the chip so I could order a new one. My buddy Daryl helped with soldering, as I’ve never done components this small and my soldering iron stinks. A replacement chip was ~$3 from Digikey and the HDHR works perfectly and no longer smells like burning.
I did the same thing. Do you remember what part# the IC7 chip was?
-Thank You
It’s the MAX1952ESA+. They are reasonably priced at Digikey and they have fast shipping.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MAX1952ESA%2B/MAX1952ESA%2B-ND/1513359
Cheers,
-B
Mr. Guitar,
I am glad I found this blog as I ran into the same problem you did. I also plugged in a wrong power adapter with higher voltage. Quick question, the digikey link you provided has two flavors of this IC7 chip, MAX1952ESA+ and MAX1952ESA+-ND. What is the “-ND” stand for and which one should I purchase? Thank you very much…
Aden,
I wish I knew. I checked my invoice and it shows MAX1952ESA+ as the part number, but looking at their site it looks like the -ND one is just the Digikey part number not the manufacture’s part number. I want to say you’ll be fine going this route but it’s probably a better question for the people at Digikey than myself. Good luck w/ the repair, these solder pads are tiny. :)
You where lucky regarding the price. I have also fried my HDHR but I can’t find any cheep MAX1952ESA+ here in europe. The prices I have seen including postage is $30-40 !!
Thanks for posting this. I did the exact same thing tonight. I got no smell but the HDHomeRun no longer works. It also killed the 12v AC Adapter that I plugged in by mistake. I found a replacement for the AC Adapter on Amazon. It looks like I’ll be ordering this chip now. Thanks again!
I should probably add an update to this post. While swapping the chips did bring the unit back for a while, after a few months of use the recorded programs became unwatchable. They contained a *lot* of distortion, and I ended up throwing the unit away. :/ The good news is they are a lot less expensive now so it’s not as big of a deal. Sorry to hear you had a similar experience. If you swap the chip please let me know if the content you pull down is normal or distorted. Good luck!
What is the core processor used in the HDHR? I am not ready to open mine up and I was wondering if you had any other pictures.
Ordered a replacement and soldered the new IC onto the pcb. but the unit is not powering up. I guess my unit is more dead than the others here. Anyone know if there is some fuse on the board.
I also did the same brain dead thing by plugging in a 12v source. Upon replacing the MAX1952ESA+, the unit would still not power up. I guess this unit is going into the landfill.
Ooops. Sorry I missed this. I think I forgot to update this old post. My repair ended up only half working. The tuner could scan and technically functioned, but recordings were badly distorted. There was definitely more damage on the board beyond this chip. I still have my HDHR-3US and primarily use it with the android app these days. Good luck!