The Diesel heater thread

[brokedown]

Originally Posted by Native

You have your own wave solder machine?

Nope I'm doing it all by hand with my cheapo soldering station, a new tub of flux, and some new (to me) techniques.
I did run into one capacitor I couldn't do so I ordered a larger footprint part, can you spot it?

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by brokedown

Nope I'm doing it all by hand with my cheapo soldering station, a new tub of flux, and some new (to me) techniques.
I did run into one capacitor I couldn't do so I ordered a larger footprint part, can you spot it?
Attachment 42440

Damn, that's tiny and I came from electronics manufacturing. I left in 2000 tho and Bose (speaker dudes) were way behind on technology. Before that was military radios and they weren't too concerned on miniaturizing. You'd think the space program (another job) would have been but that was power supplies for satellites. That little cap wouldn't survive power-on.

Do you happen to know what size it is? Smallest I've worked with is 0402. Smallest I recall seeing is 0201. Yours especially requires specialized equipment. I used to be certified in Mil Std 2002 soldering.

[brokedown]

It's an 0201. It should have been an 0805 but someone made a parts list with the 0201 for whatever reason. Honestly I've lost 5 or 6 of those just getting them off the tape, they disappear into the air. I've tried several times to use flux to stick them to the board but they end up lifting onto the iron ever time.

I'm getting handy at the 0805 parts. I'm only doing one or two components per day as time allows but I'm slowly making progress!

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by brokedown

It's an 0201. It should have been an 0805 but someone made a parts list with the 0201 for whatever reason. Honestly I've lost 5 or 6 of those just getting them off the tape, they disappear into the air. I've tried several times to use flux to stick them to the board but they end up lifting onto the iron ever time.

I'm getting handy at the 0805 parts. I'm only doing one or two components per day as time allows but I'm slowly making progress!

That looks a lot smaller than I remember.


Use a bit of glue. Use tweezers too.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...NIXZHJGI&psc=1

[Native]

Originally Posted by Brewerbob

That looks a lot smaller than I remember.


Use a bit of glue. Use tweezers too.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...NIXZHJGI&psc=1

That is a nice tweezer set!

[brokedown]

I went ahead and bought those, should be an improvement over using a bent strand of wire to try to hold things in place!

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by Native

That is a nice tweezer set!

They are cheap and bend easily. Just be careful how hard you squeeze and you'll be good. It's not like you want to go squeezing caps hard anyway since they tend to chip.

I bought the set for the impending splinters once I start in the real interior work.

[Native]

Originally Posted by Brewerbob

They are cheap and bend easily. Just be careful how hard you squeeze and you'll be good. It's not like you want to go squeezing caps hard anyway since they tend to chip.

I bought the set for the impending splinters once I start in the real interior work.

We have a number of stainless steel twees]zers for the splinters. Now ... where are they???

[joeblack5]

What is an afterburner on a diesel heater and why would you use smd components... Not sure , maybe your schematic is that filled with components and you absolutely need it in a small box otherwise going a little bigger might make it easier to repair. Kind of the pre 2003 bus theory.
I just installed a differential temp controller in our greenhouse that pump the warm air from the greenhouse in my shop . just uses a 741 and a couple of r and c. Even used a socket so I can replace the 741 in ten years when it fails for who knows what kind of reason.

Good luck your project.

Johan

[brokedown]

The Afterburner is an open source replacement control module for chinese diesel heaters. it gives you a ton of features including wifi and bluetooth control, an RPC interface for sending commands, and fine tuning of your combustion based on sensors. The guy who created it has published gerber files to get your boards made, and it uses surface mount components. It might be a valuable exercise to create a new board that only uses surface mount where necessary and through-hold everywhere else. A few of the components only exist as surface mount, such as the ESP32 module. Those aren't the tough ones to solder in, although they do take patience and some technique.

Home

[Booyah45828]

Yeah, don't feel bad, I was lost too for a moment.

When you said afterburner, I was thinking an incendiary device that would attach to the exhaust of the heater to produce more heat/clean up the smoke. You know, like the things on fighter jets that throw huge flames out the back?

I thought, wth kind of lunatic would come up with this as a solution to soot issues in a heater, and if these heaters have that bad of soot issues that they need this device, why would anybody use one.

Now I realize it's a controller for the heater to run the heater better

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

Yeah, don't feel bad, I was lost too for a moment.

When you said afterburner, I was thinking an incendiary device that would attach to the exhaust of the heater to produce more heat/clean up the smoke. You know, like the things on fighter jets that throw huge flames out the back?

I thought, wth kind of lunatic would come up with this as a solution to soot issues in a heater, and if these heaters have that bad of soot issues that they need this device, why would anybody use one.

Now I realize it's a controller for the heater to run the heater better

I like yours better. May not be functional nor practical but it'll chase off intruders!!

[Iwant2Bus]

Originally Posted by brijn

Hi,


In Tango's fantastic build thread (http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f27/46...tml#post300399) he asked if somebody had experience with the Chinese diesel heaters.


Several follow up questions came up, so I thought we better not sidetrack the build thread and continue here.


I have one on order and watches many Youtube videos before ordering one:
- They are much cheaper then the Eberspacher / PLanar equivalent
- They are exceedingly simple (Fuel pump, fan, glow plug, burning chamber)
- The issues they have are similar to the more expensive ones


There is a very active Facebook group where people post their experiences.


Overall the feedback is positive, with some people having very significant soot build up issues.


Since these heater can be tweaked, the question is always: did people tweak and not say so. The fuel feed rate and fan speed can both be adjusted to get a clean burn.


It's highly recommended (for all these heaters) to run them full power regularly to build of any soot


You can run kerosene at some interval as well. It burns not as hot, but will help in remove build up (easier combustion?). Kerosene also recommend if you use at higher elevations (but adjusting the fuel feed rate should do the same)


I would love to come up with a relatively inexpensive way to tweak the burn settings. Maybe with a CO2 sensor and try to find peak CO2. Or maybe there is sensors that would be able to measure the level of unburned hydrocarbons.


Once I get mine, I will post some experiences here


Bas

So Brijn?
Did you install the chinese Heater?
Is it working good for you so far?
Any repairs or maintenance required?

I have 1989 Blue Bird TC2000, with a small wood stove.
A (heavy) curtain separates the sleeping areas.
I'm looking for a solution for fresher fall/spring nights - not for winter. (*I dont want to feed to stove all night!)

I'm planning to install a Y connection with closing vents so I can either heat the sleeping area or the living area - for toasty feet mornings!

I'm hesitating between
a Espar d2
https://heaters4you.com/eberspacher/...675050000.html

Planar 2kW
https://heaters4you.com/for-areas-le...ontroller-pu_5

and chinese "8kW"
https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Chauffage...1846286&sr=8-6

[Theunnamedbus]

Looking for a recommendation for a 24v diesel heater for my 24v solar set up. Can anyone advise?

[kazetsukai]

Originally Posted by Theunnamedbus

Looking for a recommendation for a 24v diesel heater for my 24v solar set up. Can anyone advise?

Do you need a 24V heater, or can you use a 24V -> 12V step down converter and a 12V heater?

[Hiyu]

Might take awhile for your water to heat up if the engine is just idling.... My diesel doesn't warm up until I drive at high speeds for about fifteen minutes. Food for thought