LF DC3000/DC5000 controller

[Safir]

I know it's a longshot, but the controller on my DC3000 died overnight.

Does anyone have a spare lying around? I have another pump in it's place temporarily, but I won't be able to stand the noise for long.

 

[Safir]

Crisis averted - I got the pump running again.

 

[scuzy]

Usually its the power supply

 

[ReefWhatYouSow]

Crisis averted - I got the pump running again.

What did you do to get it running? I had the same issue with one of mine.

 

[Safir]

I forgot that this particular pump was "sticky" when I bought it nearly a year ago.
I heated the pump and controller by swapping them with my dc6000 and the controller ran the 6000 and the 6000's controller ran the 3000 very slowly. I had already pulled the pump apart and,cleaned it once, but I did again and,ran,it without the impeller housing and it started running fine. Reassembled, reinstalled and all is well.

 

[Safir]

That should be tested the pump and controller.

I should add the pump was running but very slowly, barely caused a ripple in a 5gal bucket on speed 6 leading me to believe either the controller could no longer deliver the amperage needed or the control signal was broken in some way.

Does anyone know how these are controlled? Is it pwm or voltage? A guess based on my observations troubleshooting last night is pwm but I don't have a scope to test it.

 

[d0ughb0y]

I think the controller is the same, you probably used the lower amp power supply on the higher amp pump. The power supply connection is "pass thru" from the power supply jack into the controller then to the pump. The only thing the controller adds is the pwm signal to the pump.

 

[Safir]

I verified the power supply. The power supply running it now is the one it came with and had been running with for months. The pump just decided it didn't want to turn after feeding time Tuesday night.