Nov
23
The capacitors in the first picture are failing as can be seen by their bulging. They are supposed to hold the electric charge for the inverter circuit using the 4511GM FET ICs shown above. Once the capacitor cannot hold its designed charge, the BIT3193 PWM controller in the middle of the bottom picture tells the …
Oct
29
Customer plugged wrong transformer into board which caused the FET to fail, and then L2 to heat up and fall off the board. Credit: http://www.kevtris.org/
Oct
29
The transformer leads apparently arced over. The owner describes the part as having died with a drawn out crackle and a smell of burning PCB. Credit: Asheem Linaval from CA, USA
Oct
29
That purple flash is a high-voltage arc between the terminals on the oscilloscope. The silver in the silver-bearing solder migrates over time due to the high-voltage, and once it has migrated far enough, it forms a conductive bridge. Credit: http://reboots.g-cipher.net