S1 Mini Vivaldi II - strange sounds and grouphead dripping / failure?

[OhHarvey]

Hi everybody,

my S1 Mini Vivaldi II is quite brand new (bought in July 2020) but has unfortunately showing a strange behavior for 2 days now. I think there is a failure, but I don't know the cause and I'm not an expert though

Observations:
- abnormal clicking noise when plugging in or unplugging the power cable
- constant humming
- brewing group is dripping water / gives off large amounts of water without pulling shots
- during backflush there is no pressure relief into the dip tray

I have uploaded 2 videos showing the main points mentioned:
https://vimeo.com/515883831
https://vimeo.com/515882023

Anyone can help me?

Thanks,
Michael

[OhHarvey]

I have opened the Mini II and made the following observation:
- the sound may come from the valve at the brewhead
- when disconnecting the cable feom that valve there is no clicking or humming, no water dripps through the brewing head

Therefore, this valve must be the faulty part. Im wondering wether its the valve itself or the main unit controlling that valve? Any suggestions?

[chas]

While you have the cable disconnected from the 3-way valve solenoid, check the power across the leads. Since you are in Germany that will be 230V AC. There should never be voltage on those leads when you just plug the unit in. Even when you turn on the machine there shouldn't be voltage there until you press either the one-cup or two-cup button. If there is 230 volts AC at the solenoid as soon as you plug the machine into your power outlet, I am not sure what could cause that except for a failure on the controller board. There is a small relay on the controller board that is enabled by the controller processor that supplies the 230V to the solenoid. If you have voltage on the solenoid when you just plug in the machine, then it sounds like that relay is stuck in the On position.

On the plus side, given how recently you purchased the machine, you should be able to get a replacement controller board under warranty.

[OhHarvey]

I checked the power across the leads: when I just plug the unit in, there is a voltage of 40V AC visible. The voltage stays the same when I put the Mini on stand by. When I press the cup button, the voltages changes to 230V AC.

Furthermore I disassembled the valve and looked for some dirt, but all the parts are looking new.

I talked to my vendor, they will send me a replacement controller board under warranty. Hopefully this will get my Mini back to work. Is there a how-to available for replacing the controller board?

Thanks for your help!

[chas]

Here is a document that describes R&R of the Controller Board:

Instructions to remove the V2 Controller Board.pdf

(1.92 MiB) Downloaded 720 times

[chas]

BTW: The manual I attached was from 2008. This was after the VII has been on the market for a short while, then a major controller board upgrade came available. Existing VII users were offered this upgrade for free but they had to remove the board and send it in for reprogramming. While the new Vivaldi Dream S1's are end-user programmable, earlier models were not.

Therefore some of the included manual covers how to change/configure the new settings of this board. In your case you should already have one of these new style boards. Therefore, if you have changed any of these settings from their defaults you should write down the current board settings so that you can re-enter these settings after firing up the new board. If you have not changed any of them from their factory defaults then there should be nothing for you to do.