Have the same Problem. Someone mentioned, that the Issue is a Capacitor on the 2nd Board. So i bought good Panasonic Capacitors and changed them - with still the Problem not solved. So next attempt is to change the Connectors on the Motor without having to cut the wires itself. These kind of Shredders have a major fault in product design. I bought the biggest one from Amazon that can also cut CD Disks and almost not used the Shredder by now. This Thing is pure Crap straight out of the Factory.
For anyone having this issue with Auto not working anymore. It has nothing to do with the sensors or at least not directly, they are just fine. There are two yellow identical capacitors, the faulty one is the one on the short side of the board / near the arrival of black-red cables coming from one of the two sensors (0.1uF K X2 15mm). If you are not sure I can send a link to Amazon if you send a message. Can’t post links here.
It is good workaround but you lost reverse gear. I had similar problem in my Amazon Basic one and problem was a capacitor on module - it lost about half of capacity and after replacing starting capacitor (in your case red one, can't see any other near motor) for about 0,5 Euro everything works fine. For the moment suppose infra red LED + receiver but replacing with set from working one didn't help.
Going by the number of comments, it looks like the auto-sensor issue is super common, making this model a clear failure. But, this trick works. Saves money and saves the the world from more plastic and electronic waste.
I think I would've looked for the sensor and see if it could be cleaned. If not, bypass it. Could also check e bay for new sensor if you could ID it. Now you have no reverse for jams.
Thanks for the video! In the end I was able to save both directions by bypassing the relay (which is normally operated by the light gate), so now it goes forward on Auto and goes back on Rev
I can verify this fix works on an Amazon Basics shredder bought in the UK mid-2020. I cut and rejoined the yellow to green, and green to yellow, and the motor now runs in the correct direction to shred when the switch is set to Reverse. Saved me £40/50 on a new shredder. Thanks KSAL0217.
Thanks for your video! This surely will help to increase sustainability by avoiding early electronic scrap. I made some measurement on the circuit board in my shredder, which is similar to yours and found two degraded HQX capacitors (100 nF/ 275 VAC) who only had about 10% of their rated capacity. After replacing them, the shredder worked fine again.
Thanks for the video. Just a side note, the Yellow and Green wires are simply held in place on the motor with a little tab that you can push down and slide the blade out of the housing (careful, the spring-loaded brushes are being held in by the wires). Simply undoing and swapping these wires you can accomplish the same end-result as what you have in your video without the need to cut or solder any wires.
I have a Omnitech shredder with the same problem. However, it had more wires than yours --- 8 wires in total from that printed circuit board I didn't have any idea how to figure which was which and what they did. I ended up cutting the black and red wires that went from the printed circuit board to the sensor. These wires were smaller gauge (thinner) than the wires that went to the motor. After cutting the sensor wires, I ended up with 4 ends. I soldered together the red and black ends of the wires that went to the printed circuit board. The red and black ends of the wires that went to the broken sensor were left hanging. I now have a working shredder. Thanks.
Kurz und knapp auf deutsch: Verbindet das gelbe (von der Platine kommend) mit dem grünen Kabel (vom Motor oben kommend). Der Motor wird dadurch bei der Reversefunktion wieder normal angesteuert, bzw. er läuft dann vorwärts und nicht rückwärts. Die Autofunktion hat weiterhin keine Funktion mehr. Papierstau sollte in Zukunft vermieden werden :P Thx for the video. It saved my shredder !!!!
Thanks mate I have the same problem on amazon basics yours looks the same internally probably just the name sticker that's different. Been looking on ebay for a new sensor light . We are a nation of waste no one looks in to fixing things I think its bull crap that parts can be had they just want you to buy a new machine . The same parts will still be used . Anyway moving on thank you .
Thank you man! I have the same shredder and after 12 years it kicked the bucket, well at least the sensor did. This helped me fix it. Owe you a beer when you come down to Guatemala. Cheers.
Thank you my man! I took mine apart, cleaned, banged it a little...tested the switch, which luckily worked again in AUTO and put it back together. I was lucky I didn't need to swap wires, but I was prepared to because of this video, which I found very useful and funny...."out of warranty....that's BS" LOL
Hi ! First thanks for this video . I got a similar issue on auto position, the shredder work really bad. When I put some paper it take many second before I can ear the motor to slowly begin to turn. I open the machine and I use a voltmeter right on the sensor. The probleme is that the current is slowly uprise from 0 to 3V then when the current reached 3V the motor turns good. So I suspected more a condensator than the sensors but my knoweldge of electronics is pretty bad so I guess I will do like you (I had the idea but wasn't sure how to proceed), I try to short the sensor with no success . Time past and the delay (between when the paper is inserted and the motor have a suffisent powerfull input signal voltage) is getting longer, this noise like a suffering machine break my heart, so no choice I will invert the cables. If someone have sufficient knoweldge in electronics (and time) it would be helpfull for a lot of people to know if it's the sensors or an other electronic component that need a change. thanks again !
I was about to throw this shredder out and buy a new one. But I thought I should check for the fix to save some money. Thank you you so much for posting this! It works!
WOW thank you for this! Saved my shredder. I didn't end up cutting & taping the wires though, I ended up just switching them into each other's little sockets. Had to take the shredder apart some more but not that hard once you're in there. Thanks again, you rock!
*This thing is perfect.つ>**share4.photo/PaperShredder?ㅜ** When I bought it a few years ago it was the cheapest. Don’t know if it still is. Works great. A little noisy but who gives.*
Thank you very much! Just did this on the AmazonBasics 6 sheet shredder. Only hitch I had was that one of the screws was hidden by a warranty sticker. Took a few minute to figure out why it wouldn't come apart!
Love it! Just rigged mine up the same way thanks to your video. Wire colors were identical so it was a snap. thanks so much for taking the time to post this! I would've thought bypassing the sensor would be the way to go but apparently that didn't work when you tried to bypass the sensors, ever get to the bottom as to why that didn't work? just curious. Important thing is, I can shred again!
