From: ohm u. <oun...@ya...> - 2006-01-26 17:52:38
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Hi everyone, Just an update on what happen before with the voltage regulators overheating: We acquired a couple of the same voltage regulator chips and removed the faulty chips to solder on the new ones. The new chips get warm, but only to normal temperatures. However, still no boot-up. So this leads to a few new questions: 1) Does gumstix.com offer any diagnotic service? repair service? I emailed gordon kruberg, but i'm sure he's extremely busy these days. 2) I was also told to ask if gumstix offers any sort of warranty on their products. 3) Since two gumstixes exhibited the same symptoms of their voltage regulators overheating, what could be the causes of this? The environment was static-safe, and the power-supply was the one we recieved from gumstix.com. It'd be nice to know in case we have to purchase new boards, so that this tragedy doesn't happen again. Are the regulator chips faulty at times? Thanks in advance, looking forward to getting back up and running! Ohm. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com |
From: Craig H. <cr...@gu...> - 2006-01-26 20:11:25
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On Jan 26, 2006, at 9:52 AM, ohm unmongkolthavong wrote: > We acquired a couple of the same voltage regulator > chips and removed the faulty chips to solder on the > new ones. The new chips get warm, but only to normal > temperatures. However, still no boot-up. > > So this leads to a few new questions: > > 1) Does gumstix.com offer any diagnotic service? > repair service? I emailed gordon kruberg, but i'm sure > he's extremely busy these days. The only limited diagnostic/repair service that we offer is the reflash service which is in the online store. This basically only covers using JTAG to re-install a working u-boot and root_fs on a gumstix where one has accidentally nuked u-boot so that the machine is unbootable. It doesn't cover hardware failures. > 2) I was also told to ask if gumstix offers any sort > of warranty on their products. We do. The warranty details are here: http://gumstix.com/oscommerce-2.2ms2/catalog/conditions.php > 3) Since two gumstixes exhibited the same symptoms of > their voltage regulators overheating, what could be > the causes of this? The environment was static-safe, > and the power-supply was the one we recieved from > gumstix.com. It'd be nice to know in case we have to > purchase new boards, so that this tragedy doesn't > happen again. > Are the regulator chips faulty at times? It's not necessarily a problem with the regulator chips -- there could have been a short on the board(s) somewhere either internal or external, which caused a surge in the draw through the regulator, which could have damaged the regulator. At that point, replacing the regulator might work, but more likely, something elsewhere on the board's been fried too by either the original surge, or subsequently when the regulator had been fritzed. When working with gumstix, or any other, circuit boards outside of a properly designed sealed case, and particularly when the boards are powered on and operating, you should not only be anti-static safe, but also of course prevent possible shorts on the surface of the boards, and be careful also to prevent hot-plugging/unplugging at contact points such as the gumstix connectors. Gumstix are small, cheap, and surprisingly resilient (I've dropped them from heights onto concrete, rarely when working on them use much in the way of anti-static precautions, and yet rarely kill them), but they are still sensitive electronic devices, where a few electrons in the wrong place at the wrong speed can cause some serious damage. > Thanks in advance, looking forward to getting back up > and running! C |