Microwave bad magnetron?

[jmelson]

I had forgot to test between the filament and the shell.  Just tested it and it shows 180 ohms of resistance between the pins and the housing.

It is showing error h98

That indicates the magnetron is shot.  It has developed a whisker of metal bridging the cathode (terminals) to the anode (main housing).
Or, possibly, the feedthrough caps have shorted.

Jon

[Gyro]

Nobody (well last two posts) seems to be reading back to see what has already been established in the thread anymore. 

[floobydust]

Panasonic Technical Guide for Inverter Microwave Ovens which has a repair/troubleshooting flowchart and inverter schematic. I found it here: http://media.datatail.com/docs/manual/371449_en.pdf

[shakalnokturn]

Nobody (well last two posts) seems to be reading back to see what has already been established in the thread anymore. 

Technicians no longer read, they just replace parts these days.

[xavier60]

The new magnetron sockets arrived. They look to be good quality and measure 440pF per pin.
I used one to repair a 2M261-M32.
I overlapped the cleaned choke lead with the pin, wrapped 2 turns of 24awg solid around it and soldered.
Ill report back if I put the magnetron into service.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5Pcs-Electronic-Microwave-Oven-Magnetron-4-Filament-Pin-Sockets-Converter-Home/132568014524?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

[chimerahitman]

How did it go?

I just had mine, LG MS1596CIR, go bad as well. It just stopped working full time.

Sometimes I'd place something to heat, and it would just spin without heating. I'd and place it again and this time the microwave would function. I later confirmed the behavior by looking at the input power with a Kill-A-Watt device and see that about 300W were being used, and on the time it would work it would hit about 1800W. This is on a 1400W microwave.

I will be taking a look at the operation without the lid on since I hear strange zit zit noises intermittently. I'd bet on the inverter board going out because of some power outages I had a few weeks ago.

EDIT: Forgot to mention it's a Inverter microwave oven, though if you search the model # it'd show it to be so.

[james_s]

That sounds more like a bad connection than a bad magnetron. Only way to know is have a look inside.

[soldar]

I have repaired quite a few microwave ovens over the years.

If the transformer is getting voltage then there are very few parts to test, just four.  By frequency of failure I would say (1) is the HV diode, (2) is the capacitor (3) is the magnetron and (4) the transformer.

It is really simple to check each part. Most of the time it is the diode.

[coppercone2]

You know im glad my microwave broke and i got a magnetron from it. And the new one does not have a godawful beeper circuit or clock on it.

Eliminating the blinking clock was more then enough.

And it had all sorts of problems. Overheated crimps, shady microswitches, etc.

Built like garbage.

What the fuck is the clock for? To remind you that your gonna get fat eating at 3am? Or to just blink 12 constantly?? God damn parasitic clocks.

[janoc]

What the fuck is the clock for? To remind you that your gonna get fat eating at 3am? Or to just blink 12 constantly?? God damn parasitic clocks.

If a microwave has clock it will likely let you program a start for a certain time - so that when you wake up or arrive home you will have your food warmed up already. Or at least that was the idea, I think.

[coppercone2]

What the fuck is the clock for? To remind you that your gonna get fat eating at 3am? Or to just blink 12 constantly?? God damn parasitic clocks.

If a microwave has clock it will likely let you program a start for a certain time - so that when you wake up or arrive home you will have your food warmed up already. Or at least that was the idea, I think.

holy shit I had no idea I can do that. I am serious. For some reason using the microwave on a timer never occurred to me.

But what food can you cook that way? Unless your making potatoes in the microwave (not bad actually if you figure out how to do it), what do you trust to leave on the counter for hours? I guess its not a bad idea for a vegetable cooker since they are more nutritious from a microwave then other cooking methods.

If someone made a peltier cooled insulated microwave that can store a soup or bacon or something in it that would be more useful IMO.

[janoc]

What the fuck is the clock for? To remind you that your gonna get fat eating at 3am? Or to just blink 12 constantly?? God damn parasitic clocks.

If a microwave has clock it will likely let you program a start for a certain time - so that when you wake up or arrive home you will have your food warmed up already. Or at least that was the idea, I think.

holy shit I had no idea I can do that. I am serious. For some reason using the microwave on a timer never occurred to me.

But what food can you cook that way? Unless your making potatoes in the microwave (not bad actually if you figure out how to do it), what do you trust to leave on the counter for hours? I guess its not a bad idea for a vegetable cooker since they are more nutritious from a microwave then other cooking methods.

If someone made a peltier cooled insulated microwave that can store a soup or bacon or something in it that would be more useful IMO.

I am not sure I would leave raw food in a microwave overnight so that it can be cooked in the morning but there is plenty of food that you just warm up (no need to cook it). Also you don't need to necessarily use it overnight but maybe an hour or two delay while you are shopping, for ex.

But you can certainly cook rice or pasta in a microwave. Or even make coffee if you are desperate. None of that would spoil.

I would be more concerned with leaving the microwave unattended but some people don't have qualms about it.

[coppercone2]

how do you get the water and pasta not to mix?

You mean like a non-meat pasta reheat?

[janoc]

how do you get the water and pasta not to mix?

You mean like a non-meat pasta reheat?

https://www.thespruceeats.com/spaghetti-in-the-microwave-481882

But I think we should keep the discussion to the topic and not microwave cooking recipes.

[coppercone2]

I dont see anything in that recipie that can be left in the microwave for many hours...

You can prob make potato chips good that way though. You just need a stack and some tuning.

I guess if you just leave for a few hours its alright. I am stuck thinking of a ten hour work day.

[canadaboy25]

I ordered a connector on ebay an and waited the 3 months that they quoted it to arrive and it never did.  They refunded my money so I guess I'll try my luck ordering another one.

[oolloo]

Start with the basics. Most microwaves have 3 door switches. I've repaired a couple microwaves, and that was the cause. Then I'd suspect caps.

They can but they don't lol here's how to know for sure.   Go look at a old Cband only mesh satellite dish , they receive at 4ghz  a microwave signal.  Not at the same power though. 

However thier job is to not allow any microwave signal to penetrate through, rather to reflect microwave energy back into the feed horn.   

We all know the higher the frequencies the smaller the wave,  that's why your uhf and vhf tv antennas are huge or have huge dipole.  Inside a C band feedhorn you'll find the dipole for reception of a 4ghz signal it's about 2 CM.   (Sorry yanks , it's called metric,  it's over 100 yrs old, time for you to catch up, stop using your barbaric biblical measurements .) 

Taking into account that no hole in microwave oven is greater than that of mesh on a 3 metre satellite antenna
And that a 2.4 ghz signal  like the one Panasonic magnetron makes .   Also keep in mind that the USA allows 5 as a measure of leakage acceptable and Canada allows 1 where Australia allows 2.  Not sure what the measure is it's in the Panasonic microwave oven repair guide though.

OR

Also you could look at a 2.4 ghz Wi-Fi mesh antenna and see that the gaps are huge yet it still is a barrier to that frequencie. 

[OwO]

A new magnetron costs about $5 here... it's just heavy and costly to ship.

[coppercone2]

if it has a whisker can't you blow it up with a high current pulse?