Help - Broken Toaster!
Discussion
Minor crisis in the SB household. One half of our somewhat ridiculous Sage AKA Breville "smart" toaster has packed up.

Basically the buttons/lights on the LHS have a mind of their own. Much faffing with security screws and disassembly, and the fault was isolated to the buttons/lights PCB for the left side. (luckily the two halves are entirely independent, so you can swap over to find the fault).
It's a straightforward single-side through-hole PCB, just LEDs, resistors and switches. Nothing active at all. No obvious dry joints, solder whiskers or broken tracks. Switches all work ok with continuity tester, resistors all measure sensibly OK too, so I'm a bit stumped.
My best guess is there's something hinky with one of the switches so I'm going to replace those and re-flow the other joints. any other suggestions welcome...

I was expecting the motors to give out long before anything else, but they're working fine.

Basically the buttons/lights on the LHS have a mind of their own. Much faffing with security screws and disassembly, and the fault was isolated to the buttons/lights PCB for the left side. (luckily the two halves are entirely independent, so you can swap over to find the fault).
It's a straightforward single-side through-hole PCB, just LEDs, resistors and switches. Nothing active at all. No obvious dry joints, solder whiskers or broken tracks. Switches all work ok with continuity tester, resistors all measure sensibly OK too, so I'm a bit stumped.
My best guess is there's something hinky with one of the switches so I'm going to replace those and re-flow the other joints. any other suggestions welcome...
I was expecting the motors to give out long before anything else, but they're working fine.
Simpo Two said:
Motors?
I see that it has a button marked 'crumpet'... it could be worth £189.99 just for that
I have the same toaster, I didn't pay for it in full but having had it a while it's absolutely worth the money as ridiculous as that seems I see that it has a button marked 'crumpet'... it could be worth £189.99 just for that


No suggestions OP but faults on these seem to be rare, hopefully an easy fix if it's out of warranty.
C5_Steve said:
I have the same toaster, I didn't pay for it in full but having had it a while it's absolutely worth the money as ridiculous as that seems 
No suggestions OP but faults on these seem to be rare, hopefully an easy fix if it's out of warranty.
It's made it to five years, and I think we've gone through three kettles in that time...
No suggestions OP but faults on these seem to be rare, hopefully an easy fix if it's out of warranty.
It should be easy to check each switch with a multimeter, they look like standard momentary contact types.
Is there anything interesting on the back of the board? It's not unknown to have a 'surface mount' component or two on the wiring side.
May be a chip covered in a blob of black epoxy.
Removing components from cheap pcbs can result in tracks failing so, checking the less invasive options first is a good move.
Is there anything interesting on the back of the board? It's not unknown to have a 'surface mount' component or two on the wiring side.
May be a chip covered in a blob of black epoxy.
Removing components from cheap pcbs can result in tracks failing so, checking the less invasive options first is a good move.
57Ford said:
Possibly the cable / connector is dicky which plugs into the pcb? When you tested it with the other pcb, you might just have bent it into a working position.
Could be as simple as a socket not fully engaged in the housing.
Possible, although the cable was uplugged/replugged several times to no avail. Could be as simple as a socket not fully engaged in the housing.
OutInTheShed said:
It should be easy to check each switch with a multimeter, they look like standard momentary contact types.
Is there anything interesting on the back of the board? It's not unknown to have a 'surface mount' component or two on the wiring side.
May be a chip covered in a blob of black epoxy.
No, nothing active at all. The switches all check out with a meter, although one seemed a bit 'slow', even though the continuitiy tester seemed happy.Is there anything interesting on the back of the board? It's not unknown to have a 'surface mount' component or two on the wiring side.
May be a chip covered in a blob of black epoxy.
OutInTheShed said:
Removing components from cheap pcbs can result in tracks failing so, checking the less invasive options first is a good move.
Yes, aware of that risk. Luckily it's simple single-sided board, no PTH, so a repair won't be impossible.What's taxing me a little is that there's five switches, and seven distinct LEDs - yet everything comes through a 10-pin header... Time to do a bigclivedotcom "one moment please", and work out the schematic...
Edited by silentbrown on Monday 18th March 21:56
silentbrown said:
My best guess is there's something hinky with one of the switches so I'm going to replace those and re-flow the other joints. any other suggestions welcome...
Switches replaced,10-way connector joint reflowed, and... 
I really wasn't expecting that to make a difference. Now expecting heating elements to fail shortly!
silentbrown said:
...Now expecting heating elements to fail shortly!
Be careful - it can spread like a rash through the whitegoods nearby.Our toaster was first, it fell poorly and would only toast one slice at a time. Two days later, the microwave fell terminally ill, refusing to radiate anything. A trip to Argos cured both of those, but then...
...the following week the washing machine expired. Not even a red light on the front and all attempts at revival failed. The only thing I can think of is that they were all plugged into the same ring main and that obviously propogated the poorliness. The fridge is under close scrutiny!
An expensive ten days all told.

Edited by littleredrooster on Thursday 21st March 19:49
littleredrooster said:
Be careful - it can spread like a rash through the whitegoods nearby.
Our toaster was first, it fell poorly and would only toast one slice at a time. Two days later, the microwave fell terminally ill, refusing to radiate anything. A trip to Argos cured both of those, but then...
...the following week the washing machine expired. Not even a red light on the front and all attempts at revival failed. The only thing I can think of is that they were all plugged into the same ring main and that obviously propogated the poorliness. The fridge is until close scrutiny!
An expensive ten days all told.
Probably a coincidence but maybe worth speaking to your DNO and getting the supply checked - you maybe getting voltage spikes.Our toaster was first, it fell poorly and would only toast one slice at a time. Two days later, the microwave fell terminally ill, refusing to radiate anything. A trip to Argos cured both of those, but then...
...the following week the washing machine expired. Not even a red light on the front and all attempts at revival failed. The only thing I can think of is that they were all plugged into the same ring main and that obviously propogated the poorliness. The fridge is until close scrutiny!
An expensive ten days all told.

silentbrown said:
What's taxing me a little is that there's five switches, and seven distinct LEDs - yet everything comes through a 10-pin header...
probably a separate wire for each LED, and the switches/resistors form a number of potential dividers to send a different voltage back down a single wire depending upon which switch is being pressed?I have the same toaster and love the functionality but find it very inconsistent with the browning level and sometimes have to put it down multiple times, but sometimes it's perfect first time

Josh
Super Josh said:
probably a separate wire for each LED, and the switches/resistors form a number of potential dividers to send a different voltage back down a single wire depending upon which switch is being pressed?
That's pretty hacky, but would explain why a single switch that's gone bad affects the behaviour of all other switches...Firstly, congratulations to the OP.
Secondly, a warning to all toaster owners. Do not leave a frozen leg of lamb balanced on your toaster overnight to defrost. (Obviously the toaster wasn't switched on at any point in this operation. That would have been silly. It was just being used to lift the joint off the work surface to increase air flow and stop mice from being able to reach it.) The only flaw in this otherwise brilliant plan was the volume of condensation that poured into the toaster overnight. This made the little baby Jesus cry and the toaster's LEDs started flashing plaintively for help when I tried to use it the following morning. After removing 10 years worth of soaked burnt crumbs from it and hitting it with a hairdryer, it came back to life!
Secondly, a warning to all toaster owners. Do not leave a frozen leg of lamb balanced on your toaster overnight to defrost. (Obviously the toaster wasn't switched on at any point in this operation. That would have been silly. It was just being used to lift the joint off the work surface to increase air flow and stop mice from being able to reach it.) The only flaw in this otherwise brilliant plan was the volume of condensation that poured into the toaster overnight. This made the little baby Jesus cry and the toaster's LEDs started flashing plaintively for help when I tried to use it the following morning. After removing 10 years worth of soaked burnt crumbs from it and hitting it with a hairdryer, it came back to life!
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