My OpticFilm 120 came back !

Two years (yeah in Europe Warranty is 2 years) and one month after buying my Plustek OpticFilm 120, the transformer shorted out and fried the motherboard :'(
After contacting the European support, they answered to send back the scanner they will look at the cost outside the warranty.
So I sent it back and a few days after I received a mail with the cost quoting with a repair flat rate of 266.80 € with taxes and shipping costs.
Now it's back and the scanner works flawlessly !
Thank you Plustek !

I would use a surge protector to prevent such a failure in the future.

Useless if the transformer (likely switching transformer) is the culprit itself. Such is my understanding of the above.

AgX said:

Useless if the transformer (likely switching transformer) is the culprit itself.

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A $25 surge protecting power strip for the computer/scanner/monitor/TV sure beats a $300 repair in any currency. Power spikes occur frequently and are so short in duration that they do not affect anything but why risk it?

Never appear here unless from nearby flash impact. (Had a magnitude higher damage from the latter.)
If there is no high-voltage coming from the mains, a common surge protector is useless (due to its high trigger voltage). I understood the OP as if the transformer itself failed, as in putting mains voltage on its outlet.

A surge protector may, or may not, protect against a voltage spike, depending on how well it's made. It does absolutely nothing for low voltages, brief outages, or mild over-voltages.

All of my high end electronics (computers, TV, AV Receiver, scanner) are plugged into reputable, relatively inexpensive UPS's.

Whether that would have protected the OP's Plustek, only Plustek could say. And they probably don't know either.

shutterfinger said:

I would use a surge protector to prevent such a failure in the future.

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I have a surge protector, but the problem was after...

I don't know if a "surge protector" exists for 24V DC ?

fs999 said:

I have a surge protector, but the problem was after...

I don't know if a "surge protector" exists for 24V DC ?

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Sort of. A well designed AC to DC transformer can absorb a certain amount of abuse, and should be designed in such a way that it fails in a sacrificial manner to prevent the device attached from being exposed to the surge.

Reality is, most generic transformers (wall warts, bricks, etc.) are designed to the cheapest spec, and will pass along any over/under-voltages they receive from the AC mains, usually before they suffer catastrophic failure themselves, if the surge is large enough.

So instead, the option is to provide a surge protector on the 120/240 AC (depending on region) side-- the idea being, you can protect multiple devices with a single surge protector. Ideally, it's some form of capacitor and voltage regulator to smooth out spikes, combined with a circuit breaker that pops in the event of too much voltage. Frequently, it's just a circuit breaker. The faster the response time of the breaker, the better a job it does, but the more likely you are to have occasional false interrupts.

I mentioned a UPS, because in a well-designed battery backup, the power to devices is always coming through the inverter from the battery-- so it's always exactly the right voltage, even if the power input to the battery fluctuates a bit. It's harder on the batteries (expect to replace them every 3 to 5 years), but easier on the protected equipment.

grat said:

Sort of. A well designed AC to DC transformer can absorb a certain amount of abuse, and should be designed in such a way that it fails in a sacrificial manner to prevent the device attached from being exposed to the surge.

Reality is, most generic transformers (wall warts, bricks, etc.) are designed to the cheapest spec, and will pass along any over/under-voltages they receive from the AC mains, usually before they suffer catastrophic failure themselves, if the surge is large enough.

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Yes, that is what happened, the transformer melted in some form and 220V went directly in the scanner. That's why I asked for a surge protector between the transformer and the scanner...

grat said:

So instead, the option is to provide a surge protector on the 120/240 AC (depending on region) side-- the idea being, you can protect multiple devices with a single surge protector. Ideally, it's some form of capacitor and voltage regulator to smooth out spikes, combined with a circuit breaker that pops in the event of too much voltage. Frequently, it's just a circuit breaker. The faster the response time of the breaker, the better a job it does, but the more likely you are to have occasional false interrupts.

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I have a surge protector at the base of the power strip of all my computer devices. But it was useless as the power was OK, my computer and my screens didn't have a problem at that moment.