Dinosaur boards

[DQDick]

Several people have mentioned to me that they wouldn't be without a dinosaur board because the one board can replace the boards in a Norcold, a furnace or a water heater which ever is faulty. They talked like it was one board, but when I look it up there seem to be a number of dinosaur boards out there. What one is the one to get or is the whole thing a bad idea?

[snfexpress]

Dinosaur boards are generic for the application they are designed for, meaning that they have many different boards. In our case, when our Atwood furnace board went south, the D-board did not work. We had to get a genuine OEM board.

[Bill-N-Donna]

I never heard of a dinosaur board. I don’t think I would want to invest in a spare board especially not knowing for certain if it would even work. Getting a replacement usually doesn’t even cross my mind until something is broken. I guess in some situations it might be good to have a backup.

[camper4]

I had never heard of that before. Hard to believe one size would fit all though.
It will be interesting to hear from others on the topic.

[southern thunder]

I also have never heard of one.

[bncinwv]

I also have never heard of a fits-all solution. I guess in a way, spare parts can be taken to extremes and I personally think this is a good example of such. I have never had a board fail, and if it it did, I believe our extended service plan would cover it. The only real spare parts I keep on hand are the simple stuff like screws, wall anchors, etc. Sounds like another one of those personal decisions to make, but I personally feel that if you try to keep a spare on hand in the event of those failures that are likely to occur, it would seem to lead to having a back-up rig (just in case)!
Bingo

[1retired06]

I also have never had a failure on a board. It would be nice to have a fit-all spare if not too expensive. One contributing difficulty, in our unit like everyones, we have multiple appliances from different manufacturers, ex; Suburban HWH, NorCold refrigerator. Bet each manufacturer wants to sell their own unique boards.

[dieselguy]

The Dinosaur Boards I've had limited experience with is actually the product name of none OEM replacement electronic circuit boards made by this company http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com (Click on company info).DQDick was somewhat misinformed as to "one fits all". This company makes several replacement boards depending on the application. Dinosaur Boards come in handy if you have an older application or don't want to spend OEM bucks. 2 - 3 of my RVing acquaintenances have used them, are happy with the product, and saved some dough in the process. Their technical help seems to be very knowledgable of their products.

[DQDick]

Go to that website and click on Universal ignitor boards and you'll see this:


Universal Ignitor Boards are for use in Furnaces, Refrigerators & Water Heaters.

THE BOARD COMES READY FOR USE IN FURNACES OR A JUMPER ON THE BOARD CAN BE CUT TO MAKE THE BOARD INSTANT FIRE FOR USE IN REFRIGERATORS OR WATER HEATERS.

This is what they were talking about at the Escapee Boot Camp. They were using one board to literally replace all three boards. I thought it was more widely know than it appears to be. If no one here has experience with this I'll call the company and ask. I think we need OZZ.

[8.1al]

I have no personal experience with the Dinosaur boards but they have been around a long time and are well thought of

[Ozz]

Well, the ignition board can be universal, common for the HVAC business, as it does only one function. Ignites, senses flame, shuts off, or doesn't sense flame, locks out. (probably after a few tries.)
There are operation boards that do many things, sense temperature, safety controls, and so on.
Many of these universal boards have many connections, and some have 'dip switches' that must be set for the individual unit you use them on. I have used universal boards on HVAC systems that were very confusing and complicated, they give you a 40 page book with them, but these are operation boards, the one Dick is talking about is just Ignition. Probably would be a good idea to have on in stock, but failure is not common, more common is a dirty flame sensor, which can be the ignition rod itself. Just clean them with a scotch-brite or sandpaper and they will keep on keeping on, most of the time.
Hope that helped.

[DQDick]

Thanks Ozz. On target as usual.