power up problem

jonatmudd · Post by **jonatmudd** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:09 pm

Hi All,
We have been using ActiveTwo system for some while in our lab. Today we experienced problems with the system not powering up.
Here's what happens:

I push the on/off button on the battery pack. The power light on the battery pack stays green (on). The ActiveTwo hardware box, however, turns on briefly (>= 1 sec) then turns off.

I opened the box and found a significant amount of corrosion on part of the circuit...some of the capacitors and transistors for the ICs. (This was a reuslt of having spilled some saline solution on the system about 6 months ago. The system always worked, so we thought nothing of it.)

I cleaned off the salt crystals by rinsing in IPA and water. Dried thoroughly and tried again. But no luck. Got the same result.

Any ideas? Possible the capacitor is totally shorted out? Or something is corrorded on the bottom side of the surface mount components?

The thing I don't understand is why it worked ok for such a long time, but then suddenly stopped operating.

thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Post by **Coen** » Thu May 15, 2008 12:47 am

The box switches off because the safety circuit detects a short between the case shield and one of the internal power lines (a few tens of uA is enough leakage current to trigger the safety circuit)

Please sent the box to us in Amsterdam for repair. After inspection of the box, we can probably explain the shut down behavior (why not 6 months ago ?) I will post the results here.

Best regards, Coen (BioSemi)

jonatmudd · Post by **jonatmudd** » Fri May 16, 2008 8:13 pm

Coen,
Thank you for the prompt reply.

We did not send it back 6 months ago, because there was no problem with operation 6 months ago. That is the strange part; the system exhibited problems with operation long after the actual spill.

We can certainly send it back to Amsterdam, but since that is likely to be costly and time consuming, are there a few checks/easy fixes we might look for first?

We are pretty handy with electronics, debugging etc. I know you'll probably say "no way to know until we see the circuit here" but are there common problems you have seen that we might also look for?

thanks again
jon

Post by **Coen** » Mon May 19, 2008 12:04 pm

The AD-boxes are normally very reliable, there are no known issues. The few problems we have seen in the past years were nearly always related to connectors (user abuse). There are no obvious points for you to check or repair. Please sent the box to us in Amsterdam.

Best regards, Coen (BioSemi)

jonatmudd · Post by **jonatmudd** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:16 pm

OK, will ship it back.
Do I need to ship the DC power supply back with the Active Two Box?
Or can I just ship the ActiveTwo box by itself?

All indicator lights are normal on the DC power supply and it would save a lot on international shipping if I don't have to send it.

Post by **Coen** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:42 pm

Please send only the AD-box, in your case it is not necessary to send the batteries.

Best regards, Coen (BioSemi)