Relays Have Ratings

[Bruce Cloutier]

Relays have ratings for a reason. We also use UL rated flame-retardant materials for a reason.

These things happen. But you don't want this to happen to your media server through its GPIO. This event took out the power supply and fried the entire unit.

The issue here, really, is that this came back from France and the customer was seeking a warranty replacement. Hopefully in the future they can remove a few screws (and tighten others) to look inside and save the international shipping. Not covered.

clipboard-202204121155-nvtl2.png
0001.png0002.png

[Steve Guttag]

Yes they do...for both minimum and maximum current (with different types of power too).

[Marco Giustini]

Is there a battery in the Jnior?

[Marcel Birgelen]

That's no battery, that's a miniature flying saucer where the tiny aliens live that control the thing.

Although it causes more delay, I tend to avoid wiring anything with real power through embedded controller thingies, even if the rating is good enough. I usually put in a bunch of separate relays on a DIN rail, just to avoid stuff like this. Why I do this even if the rating is good enough? Because I've seen several times now that someone manages to connect stuff that's not supposed to be on there to those lines. A fried relay on a DIN rail is cheaply and easily replaced, most embedded controller thingies cost money and let's hope someone saved the program and/or config on them...

[Randy Stankey]

Oops! Somebody let out the magic smoke!

[Bruce Cloutier]

Is there a battery in the Jnior?

That maintains the clock and the content of the root of the file system (logs). It is not critical. Not at all like the batteries maintaining your certificates. It can go dead and you might not even notice.

The Series 3 (old JNIORs) also have batteries which are not replaceable and likely all dead at this point. No big deal.

That's no battery, that's a miniature flying saucer where the tiny aliens live that control the thing.

Sarcasm? Marcel?

Ever wonder if aliens are on the same scale with us? If they were miniature they could be all around us and we would not know. There are definitely bugs/pests that are likely not from this planet.

BTW... That 8-SOIC 8-pin little chip over there on the far left just under that round thing marked 470 we cannot get. Maybe not ever again. I can go off on a rant as to how all of this supply chain crap is blatant mismanagement by the manufacturers (in this case Texas Instruments) and by the government (no matter what flavor). The list of excuses is mind boggling. But I am scrambling to design around that as we speak and there is no drop-in alternative (LM2675). Even what is available is at least 2X larger.

So I wish magic smoke was all we needed... Randy.

[Harold Hallikainen]

You didn't specify the package for the LM2675. I see some are in stock and some are not at https://www.findchips.com/search/lm2675 .

On parts, I needed four ferrite beads for a project ( https://w6iwi.org/ParasiticSuppressor/ ). Two distributors each had three in stock. So, I bought 6 between the two distributors. Parts about 50 cents each. Shipping a total of $18.

Harold

[Bruce Cloutier]

Yeah that part is actually LM2675M-5.0/NOPB or LM2675MX-5.0/NOPB. They are not available until 2023. That news is direct from TI. If you didn't have open orders from 2021 or earlier they are outright refusing to expedite. You are pooched.

Everything basically is RoHS these days but even if you ignore the no lead NOPB the parts are not to be found. I wasn't expecting anyone to go searching for us but thanks. Oh, as you can see in the photo it is the 8-SOIC surface mount package. Even if there were parts in another package or if I were to use the ADJ flavor using a 5V setting it would require a PCB redesign. So I am redesigning and if I have to do that, well, the heck with TI. Sadly I have 1000s of bare PCBs in inventory that will no longer be usable. And, I am in the same situation with the TI DP83640 PHY.

But if you want to be helpful and you live near TI offices you can flip them off for me. I personally think that they have mishandled the whole situation perhaps from even before COVID. For a while as supply dwindled they were happy to profit from increasing prices. This component is a staple in so many designs that it is outright irresponsible for them not to go out of their way to insure supply. But it is not just TI or even the government (past or present). We've gotten ourselves in this predicament one way or another.

Oh and they need to stop using the Automotive industry as one of the excuses. None of us needs their cell phone to drive us to work. Nor do I need a vehicle that becomes obsolete (or deprecated) every 2 years. I've actually been eyeing a classic "analog" car. You know, something that when it doesn't run you can dive under the hood and fix it... and not by first trying a reboot. You need something that'll survive a good EMP event.

It's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

(See... I don't even need Dennis Miller or Lewis Black to write my posts... )

[Carsten Kurz]

My..., LM2675, today that is a standard component like a NE555 or '741 used to be - just that these had many manufacturers, not just one. How ridiculous is that? That shortage could kill companies. How many would you need?

[Bruce Cloutier]

I have my own copy, 1st printing I bet, of The IC TImer Cookbook by the way.

Every JNIOR ever made used one of these switching regulators. I have only 146 left and those are committed to our friends in AMC theaters. We'll run that well dry probably this week. There was no warning that I should be hoarding them. Then again most of my inside sales distribution support has augered into the mud. So no one looking after us. I can replace the part with a similar component but in a much larger DPak footprint. There may be enough space after moving things around.

I moved to a PHY from an aerospace company who could commit to 8-week lead times. The 412 will be the first to run that. But is there time to run a prototype set of boards?

There is a 3.3V LDO linear regulator that I also need to change. We were using the less popular pinout it seems.

No fun. It'll be a long while before we recover these expenses. But there will be JNIOR.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Sarcasm? Marcel?

What? Who?! Sarcasm? Me?! Never!

Ever wonder if aliens are on the same scale with us? If they were miniature they could be all around us and we would not know. There are definitely bugs/pests that are likely not from this planet.

I guess you're not a Moby fan, and I wouldn't consider myself one either, but still, this old videoclip comes to mind. In my pretty humble opinion, we lack a good definition for what intelligence and life actually is. There may be so many forms of "intelligence" and "life" out there that we're simply not able to understand and henceforth also not really able to detect most of it.

In our sci-fi we mostly depict alien lifeforms as derivates from lifeforms we know from Earth. We depict them mostly at a human scale, because that allows us to better interact with them in our stories. But if you look how vastly different life evolved on this one planet alone and how a little more or less of oxygen in the atmosphere alone already influenced the way life evolved on this planet, I don't think we're even able to fathom what alien life will look like.

BTW... That 8-SOIC 8-pin little chip over there on the far left just under that round thing marked 470 we cannot get. Maybe not ever again. I can go off on a rant as to how all of this supply chain crap is blatant mismanagement by the manufacturers (in this case Texas Instruments) and by the government (no matter what flavor). The list of excuses is mind boggling. But I am scrambling to design around that as we speak and there is no drop-in alternative (LM2675). Even what is available is at least 2X larger.

Maybe you can settle for some Chinese knock-offs...

[Randy Stankey]

Bruce: Magic smoke is like toothpaste. Once it's out, you can't put it back in. If only...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Bruce: Magic smoke is like toothpaste. Once it's out, you can't put it back in. If only...

If only...

[Randy Stankey]

If only...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Wow, so much suction. I'd be scared if my toothpaste came in such a tube. It's like there is a miniature black hole in there.

In this context this vaguely reminds me of my solder removal tool, only that it sucks and doesn't.... you know, both in the wrong way.