ns Oscar Brain box fried

Have you had problems with or had to replace your Oscars brain box? We
bought our machine new almost three years ago (when ns updated to the
newer model). The brain box has failed in successive stages. First it
was the relay circuit for the boiler heater and then it was the low
water light coming on even when the reservoir leads were shorted
together. The final straw was the auto-fill circuit failing which than
caused the boiler element to fry. This seems to be a common problem
according to the Nuova distributor in Washington but the manufacturer
refuses to acknowledge it. Just the other day I talked to a coffee shop
owner who had bought two machines where the brain boxes failed. One for
her parents (won't heat up) and her machine at the shop which she has
to cycle off and on between each shot or the low water light comes on
(this is not the common problem that can be cured by adding salt or by
shorting the reservoir leads together). Periodically the distributor
has either new and/or refurbished brain boxes in stock and has
acknowledged its high failure rate. So has any other Oscar owners had
to replace their brain boxes and where did you get them from?

Thanks for your replies. I am happy to hear that your machines are
working well.

I have taken it apart. I used to be an electronics tech in the Navy.
The problem is that the components that are used on the circuit boards
are not easy to find here in the states. I replaced the relay and the
ic that control the boiler element. That got it going again for awhile
but than the auto-fill circuit crapped out. I found others that have
had the same failures on their machines as myself but I was trying to
find out how common this problem is in order to decide if I want to fix
my machine or replace it with another hopefully more reliable brand.

badbean wrote:
> Have you had problems with or had to replace your Oscars brain box? We
> bought our machine new almost three years ago (when ns updated to the
> newer model). The brain box has failed in successive stages. First it
> was the relay circuit for the boiler heater and then it was the low
> water light coming on even when the reservoir leads were shorted
> together. The final straw was the auto-fill circuit failing which than
> caused the boiler element to fry. This seems to be a common problem
> according to the Nuova distributor in Washington but the manufacturer
> refuses to acknowledge it. Just the other day I talked to a coffee shop
> owner who had bought two machines where the brain boxes failed. One for
> her parents (won't heat up) and her machine at the shop which she has
> to cycle off and on between each shot or the low water light comes on
> (this is not the common problem that can be cured by adding salt or by
> shorting the reservoir leads together). Periodically the distributor
> has either new and/or refurbished brain boxes in stock and has
> acknowledged its high failure rate. So has any other Oscar owners had
> to replace their brain boxes and where did you get them from?

I've just replace the Giemme autofill box on my 3 yrs old Isomac Tea a
few weeks ago. It stopped work (not heating the machine and no
autofill) after the machine heated up. It's pretty easy to replac it
with a new one. Inside the box, it's a pretty simple circits, a 110v to
18v DC converter, 2 relays a chip and etc...

Yiqin