Alright. So when you guy are talking about the transistors that may have been shorted/fried, are they the two square white ones on board near the blown cap? Can someone point it out to me in one of the pics? There just a good # of transistors (mostly the small black d shaped ones) on that board, and i don't know what ones are the output ones.
And i definately agree its a pos supply. The only reason i'm attempting to fix it, is because in all likely hood its going to cost a few dollars for the caps, mabey a few more for the transistors. Even if its not capable of high amp output, if its repairable, the parts cost justify doing so relative to how much i paid for the device. At 3 amps it has plenty of uses, and eq charging fla's doesn't need high current (nor is it advisable) anyway. Just to have a cc/cv supply for charging batteries would be nice, even if it cant pump out 10a. I can't really imagine a scenario i would need the amperage its "rated" for anyway.
But a quality switching supply with overload/overvoltage and reverse polarity correction, like one of those EX mastechs, is defnately what i want, eventually. Just don't want to spend ~$175 on one atm. I'd rather buy a few caps, and possible a few transistors/diodes and make do. And if this is a linear supply, then i could have both, considering they both have their advantages/disadvantages when i do get a quality switching supply.
Also, if i got some heavy duty diodes, is there any way i could wire them up to the output terminals to prevent reverse polarity damage in the future? Perhaps some heavy duty schotty diodes? If so, would it just be connnecting them from + to -, one only allowing flow in one direction, and vice versa for the other? Mabey add some fuses there as well, since the fuses on the board and ac input plug diddn't prevent this failure? I'd imagine there some fairly simple way to use a few diodes and a fuse to prevent this from happening again (reverse polarity to a fla starter battery), or any load that can push back into the device the way the battery did.
I ordered some quality caps to replace the blown ones, and will test the transistors with my multi once i know which ones you guys are talking about. As far as the trace damage, i'm thinking a solder joint, and an epoxy coating (After replacing the cap of course since its fairly close to the solder joints) is the best way to fix that prob and prevent future arcing there. Is that correct? Or should i just epoxy the trace gap, find the nearest solder joint on each end of the trace, and solder a 16gauge copper wire to bypass the broken trace entirely?