Wiring 6 prong rocker switch

[Rooster Carpentry]

Hi,

I won't bore you with the back story, but I need some advice on how to connect a rocker switch for a Stanley Fatmax vacuum (please see photos below). It is meant to have three settings: Off, On, and On through the power take-off plug. Through a lot of trial & error (& tripped breaker resetting), I can get it to run in positions 1 & 2, and the power take off works in both, but it doesn't stay off until the tool plugged in is in use; instead, it runs continually in both positions.

Having tried to approach it logically, I thought that if I switched the wires around for long enough, I'd get it working correctly, but no joy after many hours. I need someone who's not a DIY muppet like myself to lend some advice

 

[Rooster Carpentry]

The back story: I have a woodworking shop in my back garden. I purchased this vacuum to connect to a dust collection system of pipes, which run to machines, each with a blast gate. All the machines are plugged into the extension, which plugs into the power take-off on the vacuum, so it automatically kicks in when I run a tool.

This worked fine, but I got fed up with having to try to get to the rocker switch when I wanted to turn the vacuum on to clean the shop, then back on to power take-off mode. So I took the rocker off & extended the cables so I could have the switch attached to my workbench for easy access. This worked for about a year & then the wires overheated, melted the insulation & shorted.

I'd had the foresight to label them 1-6 to match the prong numbers on the switch, but as the cables melted together, there was no way of working out which went where after removing the damaged extension wires. I realise now that the wires I used were too light for the load running through them. Thankfully, I didn't burn the workshop down!! Yes, I'm aware I'm a dangerous fool!!!

Now I just want to put it back to how it was when I purchased it & abandon the extension idea. I have a separate vac for cleaning the shop & will leave the Fatmax permanently in Power take-off mode.

 

[Avo Mk8]

I don't know this product, and can't immediately see how this should be wired.

One possibility is that the melting of the cable and subsequent breaker tripping has caused a switching component on the circuit board to become short-circuit, so that it's no longer detecting the load when you turn one of your machines on, ie the power take-off is providing power all the time.
It looks like pcb pin P6 has a CT coil sensing current through that connection, so that is presumably the neutral feed to the power take-off, which I think is what your diagram suggests. If that is the neutral to your machines, I fear the board may now be the reason the power take-off is on all the time.

I was going to ask if you could post a photo of the other side of the circuit board, but without knowing what the RoHS sticker is on (presumably a heat sink?), and what components are on it, I'm not sure that would help!

 

[Rooster Carpentry]

Thanks for the reply Avo. I did wonder whether I might have fried a component on the board. I'm pretty sure live and neutral connect to the middle pins of the switch, so the number of combinations for the other four isn't astronomical & I can either get it to run on either setting or blow the trip.

If that's the case, then I have another (less optimal) fix, which is extending the wires again but with a thicker gauge wire that won't melt the insulation & will just have to have the switch mounted on the workbench & manually switch it on when I want to use a tool.

I could try to buy a replacement circuit board, but even if I can locate one, without knowing the correct layout of the rocker I'm likely to immediately fry the new board. I'll have to chalk this one up in the loss column & retire from electrical tinkering before I burn something down!

I'll post a photo of the back of the circuit board, on the off-chance it helps, but my gut instinct is that your assessment is probably correct. I appreciate you taking the time to reply : )