Board number four failed

[Havensal]

My mod quit again this morning.  Good thing I bought a second board so I can just swap them out and return the failed one without going without my favorite mod.  What I want is some feedback from Evolv on possible causes.  I see some minute difference between the new board I bought a few weeks ago and the replacement that was sent around the same time.  This leads me to believe that it might be an issue with the boards themselves.  I just want to make sure I am not doing something wrong.  I've built a couple of mods before and this is the first that has had these issues.  Maybe I'm asking too much to chain vape at 90W.  Here are the four tickets so hopefully someone can look them over and see if there is a common problem and if there is something I need to do different.

394-ZHL-Y6TR (Ticket number: 2042)
W5P-L5W-J7A6 (Ticket number: 2700)
M9L-H3J-TZ8E (Ticket number: 3104)
PQS-XGR-68VR (Ticket number: 3431)

[Margucci]

provided all else is equal, the chip will have no issue at all chain vaping at 90 watts. i can do that on my lavabox with ease. i would be surprised with 1 board failing (but after all, things happen). i would be astonished with 2 boards failing. the fact that you have had issues with 4 boards now should tell you that there is an issue somewhere else. 

[Gm111]

Sending the whole mod back too Evolv is the only way your really going to find out what's wrong with it..

[Havensal]

Margucci said:

provided all else is equal, the chip will have no issue at all chain vaping at 90 watts. i can do that on my lavabox with ease. i would be surprised with 1 board failing (but after all, things happen). i would be astonished with 2 boards failing. the fact that you have had issues with 4 boards now should tell you that there is an issue somewhere else. 

That is what I am thinking.  I am not an electrical engineer, but you would think there would be some consistency in the failures.  Really the only issue I can think of is that the board is getting too much heat when soldering on the large input wires.  This time I trimmed some of the strands off to reduce the mass and allow faster soldering.  I always tin and preheat the wire to minimize the solder time on the board.

[Havensal]

Just an update.  I've had two more failures.  Both popped the fuse, still recognized in Escribe.  The first is on it's way to Evolve to get checked out and I am waiting for fuses to see if I can repair the second. 

[Mad Scientist]

Havensal said:

Just an update.  I've had two more failures.  Both popped the fuse, still recognized in Escribe.  The first is on it's way to Evolve to get checked out and I am waiting for fuses to see if I can repair the second. 

As another thought, your soldering iron itself might be the issue. I've used irons with enough leakage that I could feel a slight shock when touching the solder to the tip (and the iron with its controller quickly placed in the junk parts pile). If the iron isn't ESD safe, that could be another issue. What iron are you using?

[Havensal]

Right now I'm using a RS 15W el-cheapo.  I have a better one on order.  Leakage could be possible, but I would think that would show itself much sooner than I've experienced.  The boards are lasting anywhere form a week to a month of nearly constant use.  I also have a DNA40 and two Yihi devices I've built that have been running fine for months.

I know I am pushing these boards hard, between 60W and 140W, over 30ml a day at times.

[Mad Scientist]

Havensal said:

Right now I'm using a RS 15W el-cheapo.  I have a better one on order.  Leakage could be possible, but I would think that would show itself much sooner than I've experienced.  The boards are lasting anywhere form a week to a month of nearly constant use.  I also have a DNA40 and two Yihi devices I've built that have been running fine for months.

I know I am pushing these boards hard, between 60W and 140W, over 30ml a day at times.

140W and 30ml isn't pushing the boards. They can handle over 200W but battery safety makes 200W the practical limit. I have no way to know if your iron was the common denominator but it is something almost always overlooked. ESD parts damage shows up in unexpected places often with odd symptoms. A part can be weakened but still function, and then fail under long term stress or just fail unexpectedly for no apparent reason. Again, I have no way to know if that's what's causing your failures, but four dead boards would lead me to look for a common denominator in my shop. A cheapo soldering iron that's not ESD safe would be first on the list of things to never use again. The one you linked says it's ESD safe and has good reviews, so hopefully it lives up to its description.

[Havensal]

Mad Scientist said:

[QUOTE=Havensal]Right now I'm using a RS 15W el-cheapo.  I have a better one on order.  Leakage could be possible, but I would think that would show itself much sooner than I've experienced.  The boards are lasting anywhere form a week to a month of nearly constant use.  I also have a DNA40 and two Yihi devices I've built that have been running fine for months.

I know I am pushing these boards hard, between 60W and 140W, over 30ml a day at times.

140W and 30ml isn't pushing the boards. They can handle over 200W but battery safety makes 200W the practical limit. I have no way to know if your iron was the common denominator but it is something almost always overlooked. ESD parts damage shows up in unexpected places often with odd symptoms. A part can be weakened but still function, and then fail under long term stress or just fail unexpectedly for no apparent reason. Again, I have no way to know if that's what's causing your failures, but four dead boards would lead me to look for a common denominator in my shop. A cheapo soldering iron that's not ESD safe would be first on the list of things to never use again. The one you linked says it's ESD safe and has good reviews, so hopefully it lives up to its description. [/QUOTE]

Thanks for the input.  I'll keep this thread updated.

[Havensal]

Soldered on a new fuse yesterday.  Now the board reboots when I press the fire button.  This is without an atomizer attached.  So either the blown fuse was a symptom of something else wrong with the board, which I suspected when it blew, or I did something wrong when soldering the new fuse on.  Either way this one's going to have to go back to Elolve.

[Jaquith]

Hate to say this but that many 'bad boards' the problem is user error. You're either incorrectly soldering, miswiring, or your battery is or are causing the failures. I've pooched a board from soldering while I had the balancer connected, I was testing the non onboard switches .. complete user error. First and last problem after many DNA 200 Mods.

[JaySoCal]

I have had 3 boards fail but all diffrent first one dead when I got it second fuse 3rd warranty service.

[JaySoCal]

Don't give up I love the chip. I wish all mine where the same problem so I could find the root cause but one day it will be problem free.

[Spector NS5 RD]

i have a board from when they first came out. two boards from around the middle of when they came out and a board made in december. all work fine. weird, i dunno who or what to blame for boards going kaput. 

[omar]

My effusion fuse blown..send to local eletronic shop to replace the 25amp fuse..its back like normal..but after a while i figured someting is wrong with the mods. When the mods go idle..its won't turn on..connect to escibe everything is fine..i try to dismantle the mod and find out the guys accidentally broke the Inductor coil on board..so i need to find a replacement part number for the inductor coil. Anyone can help me on this..much appreciate if someone can tell me the part number so they can replace it back.

[blueridgedog]

I too have a sampling of the chips (five I think) from various times.  The one I have from the first batch is a work horse.  Even survived a bad encounter with some bar room rage.