Omega Super Charger SC-3, Poor quality flow switch, am looking for alternative..

I have been somewhat depessingly unable to locate an equivalent part. However Ross advised me that the problems with the part were known to Omega and that they were working on an update to the part.

Today that part arrived. First impressions are that the part looks much the same as the old one, still with no manufacturer willing to put its name on it (although I understand that it is in fact made by Omega) and no arrow on it to indicate direction of flow (as the switch also acts as a check valve - guess l'll be able to work it out then).

All in all am looking forward to fitting it. Hopefully it won't leak and hopefully it will prove to be much more reliable than the part it replaces. Either way will update this thread when I feel confident one way or the other about the part.

ANON

It's really just this part that's been giving me grief. The support has been very good and I now have the newly designed part. I certainly would not discourage anyone from buying the unit. My experience has been that if you have any issues, that Omega and their re-sellers, will do everything they can to help you diagnose and fix the problem at home. 

Depends when they found out about it. Sometimes these things just aren't discovered until their out there in the field.

There is no doubt it though, the part is a critical part of the compressor system, in that if for whatever reason the coolant system fails (say a leak or pump failure), then the flow switch is the part that detects this and turns the compressor off, thus sparing the compressor from overheating and ceasing up. With such a feature, whilst the Omega compressor is not the fastest out there, at least you don't have to sit next to it and babysit it while it does its work. 

One good bit of news that came out of this episode, is that if the part fails, it shuts the system down - so at least you get to find out about it before any serious damage is done. 

I don't know if that is possible. But in my case it didn't happen that way. You'd have to ask Omega and see what they say. 

Below is a picture of the replacement part I've been sent. 



Physicals are:
The length of the body is 36.5mm, body diameter is 18.2mm, overall length is 70.5mm, connection nipples lengths are (70.5-36.5)/2 = 17mm, nipple outside diameters are 9.25mm. Connection cable length is 1m, connector pin spacing 2.5mm. Connector connects to 2x 1mm square pins spaced at said 2.5mm. Connector width is 5.7mm and sits in the middle of other connectors. 

Electricals:
No flow gives open circuit. Flow gives short circuit. Judging by the cable diameter would say it could take circa 500mA of current. 

Hi Azuaro. The part in the picture is indeed a check valve flow switch. The pump is a separate part that sits a few inches below the flow switch. Given that the pump's inlet is 90° to it's outlet I would guess that the pump is the centrifugal kind. 

The two previous switches each failed in a different way. I suspect that with the first it was the electronics that let it down. With the second it was a simply leak when that occurred when the pump was running. We will see how the third goes.

FYI, as far as I can tell when there is no flow, the flow switch consists of a conducting ball that sits on the check valve's inlet, then when the pump is turned on it pushes the conducting ball onto a couple of contacts and so provides a short that is used to enable the compressor to run. But this is just speculation. 

For or now let's hope its third time lucky. But I for my part cannot see any difference between this third switch an the previous two.

Hi Azuaro, the pump is one part that does have some kind of markings on it. When I eventually get around to installing the new switch (probably when my cylinder runs out of air), I'll take the details down and post them here. 

However in the mean time, it's quite possible that the Omega part is a reed operated switch. The description I gave before being more about how I thought the switch operated. Bear in mind that I haven't taken one of theses bad boys apart yet, but now that you mention it, the reed mechanism sounds to me a more likely proposition for how the Omega part may be operating.

Either way, it certainly won't stop me shooting, as I do have other options for getting air into my rifles.

Just thought I'd let you guys know that so far the third part is holding out