# ECAM26.455M - No display, no beeps... no coffee...



## travellingkiwi (Apr 7, 2017)

I came down to make coffee... And... nothing... My Delonghi Prima Donna Deluxe S... Is no more...

It's not the power feed... Jug/Kettle works fine.. Not the cord, fuse is fine, And tests good at the insert to the machine.

PCB Gone? I've ordered a new one, but it takes 20 days to even consider shipping. Just dowering if anyone else has had something like this?

Oh, and if anyone has a description of how you open this sucker up I'd be extremely grateful.

H


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## travellingkiwi (Apr 7, 2017)

I'm going to answer this one myself.

After waiting a few weeks, the supplier delivered my new PCB... In a small white box...









Then came the challenge. Opening the coffee machine. I searched for a service manual, no dice. So I emailed Delonghi to see if I could get one. No dice. Apparently they consider it a health and safety issue if I fix it myself. But did offer me their price list for repairs. £175 + VAT for a broken PCB (Which is about £55 if you buy one online from delonghi spares). So taking careful note of their concerns, I exercised my rights and continued to fix the damn things myself.

A thorough investigation started. After quite some time, and a bit of head scratching, I found a total of 3 self tapping screws underneath and another 4 behind the water container. All useless. Don't bother if you're trying this at home.

Some time later, after the top cover for the bean reservoir annoyed me enough, I noticed that the hinges had small lever on them... And it came off... Then after investigating all the little plastic clips etc and the way the panels fitted it because apparent that the rear of the machine needed to come off first. And the only way it could come off was upwards... A bit more poking & prodding (And a few swear words) and there's a small plastic panel that sits at the rear of the bean reservoir and provides the recess for the hinges themselves. And that comes off to reveal 2x self tapping screws holding on the rear panel.









Removing those, and the rear panel slips easily upwards. Showing...









Two more self tappers (You can see one in the photo above, the other being removed already), and the side panel around the water reservoir also comes off. Revealing at the top of the machine the PCB!

Now wires... Lots of wires... Take plenty of photos and note where all the cables run to. Some of them look extremely similar. The PCB itself is held in by 4 small self-tapping screws. And some of the space for pulling wiring lugs is pretty close. Remove all the cables and the PCB, plug in the shortest cables and then seat the PCB in place and place the rest of the connectors where they go.

Note carefully the really close spacing of the terminal connectors at the rear of the board









I was initially a bit worried about all those really close bare bits of metal. But a quick look at the rear of the PCB and testing with the multi-meter reveals that all 4 of those connectors are actually the same connection. A big earth pad perhaps.

A quick re-assembly and lo! We have Power! But in Italian... Not being an italian expert was a bit of an issue, but eventually I got the machine back into English and ran a quick test. It all works! Great.

So what went wrong?

Taking a careful look at the PCB reveals no evidence of shorts or melted transistors, the big power transistor with the heat-sink is pristine. Caps all look good... A closer look was required... Then I noticed one of the resistors... Just a small bit of white residue on the sides. But it looked strange. And appears to have a hairline crack across it. Using my multi-meter it only has 1.8 Ohms resistance. Which doesn't match the replacement... Or the values it should be from the colour codes. So a dodgy resistor kills my coffee machine.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

I like the perseverance:good:


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

you can also easily repair the old board, so you have a spare...simply trim off the resistor (by the legs) with side cutters and solder on a new resistor. In fact it's a good idea, because if you refit the board and it still doesn't work, you know it wasn't the resistor!

Which in turn could mean a fault in another component caused the board to go bad.


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## ON3UP94 (Oct 26, 2019)

Where did you go to get a new PCB I have the same problem!?


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## matt-au (Feb 12, 2020)

3 years later and a great post. Thanks, has helped me out today.

I have not found a fault but have removed the PCB. My symptoms are that the machine is just 'dead'. Zero activity or signs of life.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Ahhh...reminds me of this. If the thread can be revived...well so can the parrot and perhaps the machine.


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## Achrys (Jun 17, 2019)

That wasn't a fun machine to dismantle. Lost count of the parts I had to remove to extract a solenoid to strip and clean. 
Glad I got rid of it before something else went. ?


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## travellingkiwi (Apr 7, 2017)

And... I'm back..

4 years later and my board blows again. This time it looks like a driver transistor (Maybe?) that got too warm and let smoke out after descaling... Sigh. So the pump didn't run any more.

1 new pump (It had corroded terminals so I figured I'd replace it) and a new board and I got a cup of coffee... Exactly 1, before the machine told me to 'Insert Infuser Assembly'. Since it's already inserted, I lubed it up with some food grease. The infuser now moves the piston a lot easier, but still isn't seen. The strange thing is that when it's powered off and the infuser is supposedly parked ready for removal (Or as the machine would claim, insertion) the arms are in the wrong place.

I'll dismantle again. Maybe the microswitches are disconnected somehow...


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## Auscoffee (Jul 22, 2020)

travellingkiwi said:


> Since it's already inserted, I lubed it up with some food grease. The infuser now moves the piston a lot easier, but still isn't seen. The strange thing is that when it's powered off and the infuser is supposedly parked ready for removal (Or as the machine would claim, insertion) the arms are in the wrong place.


 Encoder reset...???


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## dejan1981 (Oct 16, 2021)

Hello,

Did someone have problem with eroor: press esc+ok, and when I press nothing happend.

Help if someone knows what happens.


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## Propresso (Dec 13, 2021)

Hello.

That might be the case

https://outwestcoffee.com.au/index.php/2021/07/07/insert-infuser-assembly-delonghi-dinamica-ecam-350-55-s/


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