[hpsdr] Hot ADC

[Andreas Troschka]

On Wednesday 14 January 2009 00:09:35 Ray J wrote:

So we all are warned. No warranty nor support against manufacturing errors the customer can't reasonably accomodate by himself.

At this point also the quality of testing claimed to be done is questionable.

Your statement about an as-is basis sell is acceptable so far it includes engineering or software errors. 
These are parts managed by the HPSDR communities (as the Mercury one is).

It can be accepted also if a manufacturing error appears on those parts worked by volunteers but it can't be  if those errors involve (payed or not) professional services like PCB production (layout errors apart, in some cases) or components placement or the severe soldering processes misfunction here appears to be the case.

This are processes failures the community can't be charged of and wich can be on the behalf of that pro service providers only.

Who is responsible for hammering on the right feet is indeed requested to do it and accomodate with those pros for a solution.

As TAPR customer, my right discussion partner is TAPR, nobody else. It is up to the TAPR group to rely to their business partners, not the HPSDR community or the single board's HAM owner to find the solution with "the company" offering the defective solder process.

There is one possible scenario where your no-warranty statement completely applies only, when the entire process, say engineering AND manufacturing is home made without the intervention of professional machining.

In this case the community has to find a solution for every error/malfunction may appear (and that guys making the tests before delivery  must be more up-to-date expecially because of the new requirements introduced by the new technologies adopted on this products).

BTW I'm not one of the unlucky Mercury board customers (note that I consider this board very interesting!), so my participation on this discussion is not caused by personal reasons.
As a member of the HPDSR community, I think finding problems and trying to solve them is indeed an important task. 

Shame on hiding responsibilities behind sentences as:

> You better read Before you buy...
> 
>   Mercury IS SOLD ON AN AS-IS BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

This has nothing to do with communities nor ham spirit. 

Full-stop.

----

It should be interesting to have pictures of the back side of the boards to have a pletora of cases to evaluate.
Other thermal pads equipped IC, if any exist on the board should be investigated too.

As I stated before, in my previous message, the use of glued heatsinks is discouraged because they do not "extract" the heat from where it is supposed to.
Temperature measurements are meaningful only if made as the Linear protocols specify. You wouldn't try to measure fever under your feet, isn't it? ;-)

In the case I'll have the opportunity to have such a "buggy" board in my hands, I'd be glad to help to solve the problem with the obvious ham-spirit at first place.

vy 73s de IK2WQI - Andreas  


> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> You better read Before you buy...
> 
>   Mercury IS SOLD ON AN AS-IS BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
> 
> All Mercury boards will be tested prior to shipment, and all boards will 
> be working when they are shipped. To the extent that we have available 
> inventory, we may, at our discretion, agree to a one time only exchange.
> 
> This is a low volume production, experimental item. TAPR is a small, 
> not- for-profit organization of volunteers who have helped facilitate 
> this project because we believe it is a cool thing to have. In order for 
> TAPR to be able to offer this board at all, we must rely on the support 
> of all users in the HPSDR community. The Mercury board is basically a 
> group buy that we have chosen to pre-build because of the difficulty of 
> assembly. TAPR expects that Mercury buyers will seek help on the HPSDR 
> Discussion List before looking to TAPR for problem resolution.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > This is a very serious production quality issue. Every board having such problems should be turned back to the sender without waiting a minute.
> > Who is responsible for the quality check at customer side? TAPR?
> > He (it) has to manage the problem now and not assuming we have to sit on the brocken egg!
> > Yes, somebody of us may be able to repair this problem at his own risk but the majority shouldn't wait to have their ADCs/boards cooked cause poor production quality.
> > Don't be fooled by the fact that at the moment the board works correctly. IC's transistors give up their souls randomly, and sooner or later (maybe in 12 days or months) you will start having strange troubles with the board.
> >  
> 
>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://lists.openhpsdr.org/pipermail/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org/attachments/20090114/8e1099f1/attachment-0003.pgp>