Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Hard to find replacement part.

Hi, I would say I'm intermediate in electronics repair. My sisters' scented oil diffuser just stopped working. I offered to fix it, but after cleaning it and drying it off I found two problems. First, the vibrating quartz crystal at the bottom is cracked. That's not a big issue they sell them everywhere. Second, the controller board is shorted internally.
Most of you will probably say throw it away and buy a new one. I know they make it somewhere this diffuser model is very common. Any help finding it would be awesome.

diffuser board bottom.jpg Diffuser board top.jpg diffuser.jpg
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Post some sharp, well lit photos and we can take a better look. There's a resource that describes how to take good photos.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Go here.

The shots you've posted are blurry, and the stuff we want to see is just a part of the picture. In a good picture we should be able to read the markings on the chips clearly.
 
Go here.

The shots you've posted are blurry, and the stuff we want to see is just a part of the picture. In a good picture we should be able to read the markings on the chips clearly.


Well, I don't have a high-end camera or the best lighting. However, I did mark up the picture to highlight what I found with a magnifying glass and Google. If there is anymore I can include let me know. It may also be that the pictures are too small. This forum kept giving me grief until I shrunk the pictures. If there is a way around this please let me know. Thank you

diffuser identify.png
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
A mobile phone should be good enough. Crop the image so it just shows the board, then use an image compression tool to save it at about 80% quality JPG. That should make it small enough to post.
 
Okay, here is my Control board (compressed, labeled, and cropped) Hopefully this is enough to help find a replacement part.
I do appreciate any and all tips or links to find it.

diffuser board identiffied.jpg.jpg
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
This is the sort of image that is useful.

IMG_20191212_111234_compress5.jpg

Not that the image is compressed to reduce it's size (in bytes), but not it's resolution (size in pixels). I think this image was originally around 2MB, and by reducing the quality to 80% the size drops dramatically.

Now, this image exceeds 100kB, and I don't know if I get to upload larger images because I'm a moderator, or that the limit is larger than 100kB.

Try downloading this image, and replying it yourself to check.

I compressed this photo on my phone using an app called litphoto.
 
Last edited:
Yes, I get it. I appreciate all the help and advice. To make up for the image issues I noted all the detail about the board. If there is more info needed please let me know. By now it should be clear that there is no rush to this project. the image is crappy but I did what a lot of members of this forum might do. By researching some of the components individually. I, ll be the first to admit I don't know everything, that's why I'm here.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
The thing is, we need to be able to see fine detail to spot things like marks that indicate a possible component failure, or a bad joint, or evidence of overheating.

Even that image I uploaded is not perfect. There's some motion blur, and the depth of field isn't great, but you'll notice you can zoom in on it to see far more detail.
 

hevans1944

Hop - AC8NS
Sometime in the last century I thought I needed a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera with a macro lens and fancy lighting to take good pictures of electronics. This did work well, especially with my Canon Rebel 35mm camera mounted on a tripod with a remote shutter release cable attached to the camera. Image blur for this type of photography is almost entirely caused by camera motion, rather than object motion, hand-held objects being an exception. Don't hold in your hand what you are trying to photograph.

Then along came digital cameras, including an "upgrade" for my Canon Rebel, but I couldn't afford that. So I had to take pictures on 35mm film and wait for the film to be processed. Using Kodak Ektachrome meant I could get this done at a local drug store with just a few hours delay. Getting the results digitized, either from a print or from the color negative, added more time. Finally, the image had to be edited to fit the upload constraints of whatever blog, forum, or whatever I was posting to.

My first digital camera was a pocket-sized Panasonic with telephoto and macro lens capability. It created JPEG formatted images that I could import into Microsoft Paint (through a USB port) to resize, crop, and edit to make suitable for uploading.

I bought two of these little cameras, one for me and one for my wife, before eventually upgrading to a cell phone that took pictures. Using my home WiFi network, the images saved on the cell phone could be easily copied to our personal computers on the network. As the years rolled by, we kept apace with newer cell phones, eventually abandoning Samsung Galaxy phones for Apple iPhones. No particularly good reason for this, other than the fact that wife likes and uses Apple products. One thing I noticed was the quality of the cell phone cameras kept improving with each new generation. The cell phone images now rival what can be obtained with uber expensive DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras. They still remain more or less useless for viewing images on their LCD screens in bright ambient daylight though.

If you are having trouble taking good images with high contrast and depth of field, consider a visit to a used camera equipment dealer, also known here in the States as Pawn Shops. Be sure to try before you buy, and don't try to buy the latest model. Do some research on the Internet to find out what the going price is for what you want to buy. Don't be afraid to make the shop owner a lower offer than their asking price, your offer being a few percent more than what you can purchase on the Internet if the asking price is more than that. Buying from a real person you can complain to (even if there is a sign saying ALL SALES FINAL) if the camera fails, will sometimes elicit a replacement offer even if you can't get a cash refund. Cash refunds from Internet sellers can sometimes be very difficult to obtain. Cash refunds from Pawn Shops are unheard of without a written, signed, witnessed and notarized, iron-clad guarantee, which no pawn shop I have ever heard of will issue.

Good luck taking better pictures for this forum. Don't expect a Pulitzer Prize nomination though.

Meanwhile, visit this Ali Baba website for a plethora of onion-shaped aroma diffusers, most of them based on ultrasonic transducers, and virtually all selling for less then twenty bux plus shipping. You might find an exact duplicate for your sister's diffuser. If so, buy it and present it to her as if you had "fixed" her old one. Maybe add a few "distress" tool marks to make the substitute more convincing. Or just swap the external case if that seems feasible. Good luck with your "repair."
 
Top