Tuesday, December 29, 2009

CIRCUITBOARD

As some may recall, our Norcold refrigerator started sending us warning signals back in July of this year while we were camped without electricity for over 110 days at Trujillo meadows USFS Rio Grande National Forest Coplorado.
We were worried at that time about being up in the clouds with powerful lightning storms that rolled through. Worried enough, that we drove a eight foot long ground rod all of the way into the ground and grounded the Ollie's generator and the aluminum frame to that ground with automotive jumper cables.
As it turns out that may have been a very good thing to do for an extended stay in those conditions. But the EMP, that's electro magnetic pulse, may have already caused damage to our printed circuit board in the refrigerator. Many on here know that the powerful EMP of a nucelar detonation will destroy electronics for hunderds of square miles and in a similar manner the EMP of a nearby lightning strike will destroy them in a much smaller area.
We devised a grounding system to shunt the EMP spikes harmlessly to ground at Trujillo meadows, but just like closing the barn door after the mule is gone, we may have been a little too late.
A RV place at our county seat has tested our refrigerator and decided that it is most likely that the circuit board is out on it. We left our Ollie with them at the RV place after recieving their assurance that it would be kept inside their building if kept overnight, as we have been staying in it and plan to leave out as soon as is possible, it hasn't been Winterized. Hey, we are going to Florida , for goodnes sake !
They have another Norcold refrigerator in their shop that they think the circuit board will work from it if needed.
Fingers crossed.
More to follow as it unfolds.. .. .. ..
UPDATE------UPDATE-----UPDATE
WELL, AS WE ALL KNOW, WHEN THINGS START GOING BAD, THEY SEEM TO MULTIPLY ! The Rv place slid the fridge out into the Ollie's floor to work on it and the board is bad. Then they discovered that the board isn't interchangeable with the fridge's board that they have in their shop. They have called our Good Sam club's extended service plan and are proceeding with getting one ordered in here by the most expedicious route.
Oh, geeze, now we are emptied out ( our clothes & stuff ), the fridge is in the middle of the floor, at the dealership, and the clock is counting down to the wedding on the beach ! It's gona' be a close one !

1 comment:

drpsycho1 said...

Larry, Good Luck With Your Refrigerator. What Part Of Florida Are You Traveling Too? The Reason I Ask Is I Grew Up In Florida, And, During My Career, Lived From Pensacola To Key West And Back Again. Just Curious. Ed.