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Post by riffelrw on Jul 12, 2019 16:25:45 GMT -8
I just received a Suncontrol board and plugged in the 3.7V 6600mAh battery (which was fully charged on an adafruit feather). Immediately, with nothing plugged into the USB port, the charge and done lights went solid, then went out. The IC right above the power switch then got incredibly hot (too hot to touch) and there is no output. I disconnected the battery, then used a smaller one (still charged, and measuring 3.65V) and the IC got hot again.
I'm guessing there was a short somewhere on the board or something otherwise bad. How can i get an RMA to return it for a replacement? My order num was 2882.
thanks, Rich Riffel
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Post by SDL on Jul 14, 2019 17:41:34 GMT -8
Rich,
No problem! We will replace it. Nothing was plugged in on the solar panels?
Here is your RMA.
SwitchDoc Labs RMA#071419-02 909 S Shelley Lake Lane Spokane Valley, WA 99037
PM us your shipping address and we will cross ship it.
BP
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Post by riffelrw on Jul 15, 2019 6:55:01 GMT -8
Thanks BP, I have PM'd you.
There was a cell connected but I was in the basement and it was fairly dark. I connected it to the older board from GroveWeatherPi and it was, as expected, not putting anything out from the cell.
Rich
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Post by Powderjockey on Jul 15, 2019 18:46:50 GMT -8
I just received a Suncontrol board and plugged in the 3.7V 6600mAh battery (which was fully charged on an adafruit feather). Immediately, with nothing plugged into the USB port, the charge and done lights went solid, then went out. The IC right above the power switch then got incredibly hot (too hot to touch) and there is no output. I disconnected the battery, then used a smaller one (still charged, and measuring 3.65V) and the IC got hot again. I'm guessing there was a short somewhere on the board or something otherwise bad. How can i get an RMA to return it for a replacement? My order num was 2882. thanks, Rich Riffel Sounds very famiiar!
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Post by SDL on Jul 16, 2019 7:53:45 GMT -8
Absolutely! We are looking at this to see what is going on. This has happened on about 4 boards out of hundreds sold. Plus John found one in the lab too with even stranger symptoms.
BP
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Post by riffelrw on Jul 17, 2019 6:15:16 GMT -8
Let me know if you want me to check out a few boards - i have 8 panels and some spare pi zero's if you want me to try some stuff here in Missouri.
Meanwhile, I'll wait for the replacement. The failed board will go out today.
Rich
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Post by riffelrw on Jul 31, 2019 9:44:38 GMT -8
Do you have any new solutions to this? The replacement board ran well for a few days, but when I went to check the device this morning, it wouldn't answer, only the 2 Blue LEDS's were on, there was no 5V, and the battery was still supplying 3.85v. When i pulled the board out, the IC on the lower left (just above the current set resistor) was extremely hot (to the point i burned my finger on it) any time the battery was plugged in (and there were no lights at this point). Pulling out the battery and connecting it to the USB input did nothing - no lights, 5V at the USB, anything. The INA3221 is dead an unresponsive under any conditions.
This is the 2nd board this has happened to, and once again there was nothing external being touched or changed. It was running when I went to bed, and dead this morning. I hate to waste the investment in the panels and mounts I have now and move to another USB solar supply device. Should I go back to the earlier generation sunair plus? I really appreciated the inclusion of the watchdog in this design and never used the tracking chip in the sunair plus, but right now I'm dead in the water, spent too much time disassembling the system getting these bad boards in and out, and can't believe this is two boards blown by chance.
Getting frustrated quickly...
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Post by SDL on Aug 2, 2019 3:44:18 GMT -8
We think we know what is going on. SunControl seems to be sensitive to high input voltage (measure VOC) from solar cells. We are suggesting putting a 5.6V 10W Zener across the panels.
We have a test system. We have one here:
shop.switchdoc.com/products/10w-5-6v-zener-diode
BP
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