Text on resistor not visible

[Shivram10]

Hi everyone,
I am an hobbyist and new in electronics, my friend had an unbranded UPS which he gave me to check, when I opened the UPS I saw a black spot on the top left corner of PCB

a close up of the black spot


there were 2 - 1N1007 diodes, one was fine and other was faulty and third component there was a resistor which doesn't have any color band on it but there was some text written on it which is not visible, after using the magnifier it was barely readable, it read xxPL xxJ VPA2 0809
xxPL xxJ (2 letters not visible) VPA2 (letters VP are not clear but slight print is left so I am guessing here) 0809
I measured the resistor with my DMM it read 1.6ohm, also there are 2 cracks developed on the resistor


is the resistor ok/usable ??

So now my question is -
1.  Can the reading be accurate? can the cracks on the resistor change its value??
2.  What can be the value and wattage of the resistor?
     I googled online with the text on resistor but no result.

     The resistor on left (red) is the one I want the power rating and resistor on the right is 1/4w just for comparison.


any help will be appreciated,

Regards,
Shivram10

[Andy Watson]

I measured the resistor with my DMM it read 1.6ohm,

Does this value change when you heat it up? I suspect it is a thermistor that limits the inrush current.

[Shivram10]

@Andy Watson
Thanks for the reply,

I unsoldered the resistor from the circuit and then checked the values, secondly I am an beginner in electronics so I didn't understand what you meant by

Does this value change when you heat it up?

I just unsoldered the components when I opened the UPS, never turned the UPS on. My friend said that the UPS was tripping the Circuit Breaker of his house when he turned the UPS on. So I guessed the UPS had a short circuit inside.

[amyk]

Looks like a flameproof resistor, maybe acting as a fuse. Trace the schematic to figure out its use.

[madires]

I unsoldered the resistor from the circuit and then checked the values, secondly I am an beginner in electronics so I didn't understand what you meant by

Does this value change when you heat it up?

He meant that you should measure the resistance while heating up the resistor (hair dryer, soldering iron) to determine if it's a resistor or a thermistor.

I'd guess it's a 2W wirewound resistor.

[AndrejaKo]

First, connect the part to a multimeter in resistance measurement mode to the part and measure the value. Write it down, which you actually already did do.

Next, use a soldering iron on one of the leads to heat up the part. Check if the resistance is changing and if it is, is it going up or down. Next, if you can, put the part in a freezer for a a couple of minutes and measure the resistance. See if it changed and if it did, did it increase or decrease.

I expect the part to be a negative temperature coefficient thermistor. They operate by decreasing their resistance as the temperature increases, so when the unit just turns on, the resistance will be high, limiting the in-rush current which is often caused by charging of input capacitors. After a while, the part will heat up and resistance will decrease. At that point, the capacitors should have be charged and the circuit should be ready for normal operation.

In catalogs, look for phrase NTC Thermistor or just NTC (if that is indeed a thermistor) and you might be lucky and find  appropriate component.

On the other hand, it might be a fusible resistor used instead of a real fuse, but I don't think that such resistors in the pictured format would have printed text on them. Instead, ring marks seem to be more common.

I definitely recommend replacing that part, once it's identified.

Also note that there's a pretty high chance that this part isn't the only thing that died. I suspect that its failure was caused by failure of some downstream component.

[Shivram10]

Looks like a flameproof resistor, maybe acting as a fuse. Trace the schematic to figure out its use.

As I said earlier that is an unbranded UPS, there is no number or any marking on PCB to trace the schematic,
the length they went to keep the schematic secret  - as you can see in the first image at the center of the PCB - right side of the buzzer there is an IC whose number is scratched off and is painted with white ink and "OP" is hand written on it. 

@madires & @AndrejaKo

ok thanks for clearing my doubts I will do as you said and get back with you with my result.

[Andy Watson]

As the others have indicated, a negative temperature coefficient thermistor is often used to limit the inrush current when you switch the UPS on. However, the more I look at that package the more I am becoming convinced it is a straight forward resistor.
Try this link
http://www.variturn.com/pdf/axiallead/vpaseries.pdf

[amyk]

As I said earlier that is an unbranded UPS, there is no number or any marking on PCB to trace the schematic,
the length they went to keep the schematic secret  - as you can see in the first image at the center of the PCB - right side of the buzzer there is an IC whose number is scratched off and is painted with white ink and "OP" is hand written on it. 

Are the traces on the other side painted over too?

[Shivram10]

As I said earlier that is an unbranded UPS, there is no number or any marking on PCB to trace the schematic,
the length they went to keep the schematic secret  - as you can see in the first image at the center of the PCB - right side of the buzzer there is an IC whose number is scratched off and is painted with white ink and "OP" is hand written on it. 

Are the traces on the other side painted over too?

On bottom of the PCB there is no text just solder joints and traces.

@madires & @AndrejaKo
I just checked the resistor with following -
1.   Normal (room temp) - 1.5ohm to 1.6ohm
2.   Heated (using hot air gun) - 2.8ohm to 3.0ohm
3.   Frozen (kept in freezer) - 1.4ohm to 1.6ohm
      (When I first heated the resistor measured the value and left it for some time to let it cool down to room temp and afterwards I kept it in the freezer for 10 minutes)

@Andy Watson
Thanks a lot, on my resistor VPA2 is written that makes it a 2W resistor as show in the data sheet.

Finally thanks everyone for your replies, you just made my day  .
I will update the status of my repair in coming days.

Regards,
Shivram10

[AndrejaKo]

Don't forget what I wrote: The real issue is probably somewhere further along, so make sure you get few of those resistors, if you plan to replace it and then power up the UPS.

[SeanB]

Pretty sure what happenned is the battery died with shorted cells and the charge circuit cooked itself trying to charge it. Replace the resistor with a 1R8 5W wirewound unit ( it will be in a white ceramic boat so will be bigger) and replace the diodes with some 1N5404 3A diodes, they will be cooler running and a bit fatter so you will probably have to mount them a little above the board, the resistor will need this as well.