New E-Mag/X-Mag board!!!!!!

[p8ntbal4me]

UPDATE

Just got off the phone with the tech building our boards.

Boards went on the machine at 530pm EST. My phone says 605pm right now.

There will be a small delay due to the new to create a file called a "CPL" which tells the assembly machine where to put the parts on the board given an X and Y axis.

That's gonna add 5 days I believe.

Good news is we are back on track.

[bbotts77]

Updates like this are much better than no update at all. Thanks for the update.

[p8ntbal4me]

UPDATE

Nothing to report right now. Only that the board house called me today to say that we all are in agreement on the new design layout to solve the missing resistor (i sent in files, they verified the list of parts reflected the BOM (bill of materials) for said project.

And,.... Im not giving up :-)

We will see this through......

[Emil]

me to
I'm still here Flag

Don't give up !!

[knownothingmags]

damn man sorry to hear of this mess up.
hope it works out and things go well.

im still here no hurry for me.

[splat15k]

Gotchya; all makes sense now!



While I'd be okay with an axial leaded resistor soldered onto the board, there is no question that spinning new boards is the better option from a business standpoint.

[p8ntbal4me]

The stack is missing all together.

It's resistor 18,... And it currently only has 17

I don't have photoshop on my desktop,... But I'm certain a very small copper trace from Vdd to Gnd is missing as well.

Annnnndddd,.... The jumper for the power needs to be moved up to make room

[splat15k]

So are the bare boards themselves scrap since they need a different SMT padstack? Or is the 1206 padstack missing altogether?

[p8ntbal4me]

So if you were to look at the top of the board,... You would have this "radio shack" hand soldered resistor running from the top to the bottom of the board.

It wouldn't be protected. And it would look hidiois.

I haven't found it yet,... But I believe I promised a "SMD/SMT component made board" somewhere in the thread.

Given all that..... I know making new ones will be the right choice.

[p8ntbal4me]

Around 1/19/2012 the software engineer suggested an added comment to the power switch. This part is a "53.2k" resistor. In a 1206 package.... Tiny.....

What was happening before (and now with the boards made wrong) was at a full 100% charge everything works just fine.

But you pulse the regulator and power switches, or the HES, or eyes, etc,.... And the ground back feeds to the shutdown pin on the regulator.

It's a safety feature so you guys don't fry your boards.

The problem is the safety feature is a himderance on the CPS load at 10% pulse voltage load.

So at a high ROF,... Your board will believe there is a short and by default,... Shut down,... Protecting the circuit.

So we adds this resistor based on a suggestion and the designer saw it as a "must have" to ensure circuit protection under pulse loads.

There was two options:
One was to Hand solder a non- SMT part (which you would have seen the second you saw it) and use the old boards
Two was to have them re- made.

I'm not made of money,..... But my gut tells me to have them remade.... So that's what I did

[splat15k]

Thanks for the update, Jai; always appreciated regardless if good or bad.

Not that it matters, but I'm curious what the issue was. Was it an issue with trace width, copper weight, etc?

[p8ntbal4me]

UPDATE

I've been dreading to post this update for a few days,.... Waiting on confirmation from the manufacturer with an answer....

It's bad news,... No reason to sugar coat it.

The boards that were printed last year,... Are all junk.
They all have to be re-made.
There is a part which is not critital to the board operation per say, but effects ROF and power loss over a 2 hour period.

What that means (for me): I am having all the 100 boards remade
What that means (for you): you have yet another delay
What that means (for everyone): you will get what you paid for 100%

In the next 20 days this won't be an issue as they are turning the Gerber files now to have the boards re-made.

Immediately after that, assembly begins.

I wasn't sure if posting this would be to anyone's benefit. As it really isn't.

But I assumed you would want to know what was going on.

The details on who screwed up the boards is still being looked into,... Which is a money thing on my end. But I have already paid for the boards to be re-made in full so there is no delay on the assembly any more.

I apologize for the bad news. I wish there was something positive to say about it.

P8nt

[bbotts77]

At this point, I wouldn't bother with overnight shipping. We've waited this long, we can wait a few extra days for cheap shipping.

[splat15k]

No worries mate; stuff happens! Thank you very much for keeping us in the loop!

[havinnoj]

UPDATE;

This is not a good update,....

I made a mistake and somehow did not send in one of the 3 boxes a RSA form that the board house requires in each package sent in.

The result was having all the parts sent back to me in the mail.

It was my fault guys,.... im really sorry!

I took the day off work to get the boxes re-inventoried and the forms all re-signed in each box.



With the holiday I am not sure when the boxes will get there,... but with the insurance and over night shipping,.. it should be some time next week (thinking wednesday)

Again,... im very sorry guys,.... trying to make this right.

That's a bummer but things happen sometimes. That being said, once they get the boxes what's the expected turn around back to you?