Help

[jim bounds1]

Richard,
Did you open the bag of marshmellows provided in the Statpower box? If so,
the fire did not go to waste!

I suspect the surge of the compressor running (can pull considerable amps)
eather confused or fried the current control circuit in the charger and it
eat itself. I would be very interested in what Statpower tells you.

In my experiance working with electronics, high current and delicate
electronics do not mix well. Of course that was in the past and technology
has gotten us past that obsticle, or has it?

Jim Bounds
- -----------------------

>I have a problem. Yesterday I was working on my motorhome. The house
>batteries were charged but the auto battery was low because I had been
>using it. I plugged in the Statpower 40& that I have owned for about 4
>months. It was charging the auto battery at about 15 amps. I turned the
>engine key on to turn on the compressor (which is new) to bring up
>the suspension. The Statpower had been charging the battery for about
>5 min. The fan was not running. After about 1 min of the compressor
>running I decided to look and see how much the unit was putting out.
>I dont think the fan was running but not sure. As I started to look into
>the cabinet where the Statpower unit is located it exploded. With fire
>coming out of the front of the unit. Then smoke for about 1 min.
>I am going to check all circuits today but I dont think there is any
>problem with them as I have run all of the lights and other equipment
>with no previous problems. Please advise as to what I should do.
>I purchased the unit from West Marine.
>
>Thank You
>
>Richard E. Archer
>Gcbr
>
>
Jim Bounds/Co-op Motor Works Orlando www.gmccoop.com

 

[richard waters]

Arch,
What's your good reason for unplugging your TC 40 when
not in use? I've leave mine plugged in all the time.
Richard Waters '76 PB, Troy, MI
- --------------

> I I also unplug the unit whenever I am not using it.

 

[heinz wittenbecher]

> Sometimes electrical components just give up. My experience
> is that once they have "burned in" for a few hours they should last a good
> long time. Most electronic failures occur in relatively new equipment;
but
> ---- you never know.
>
> Has Heinz any ideas on this?
>

It used to be referred to as the Stereo Syndrome, as in "If it'll last 2
weeks it'll last forever".

My guess is that it's just a random failure. Unfortunately the "Stereo
Syndrome" still exists today in all things electronically and mechanically
as the builder, no matter how hard he/she tries, cannot eliminate all
failures but most do their best to reduce them and then stand behind those
that failed the ultimate test... the user.

Same with computer software.... test until the cows come home and then watch
it fail with embarrasment as the user "breaks" it 5 minutes later

The ultimate grading of the company will be how they handle the failure.
Personally I would've preferred to have seen an exchange offer.

I'm going to get into hot water here, but my recommendation on computers and
such is to leave them run all the time unless they are really only used
occasionally. Most problems are encounterd at turn-on.

What I do on a new product is to "burn it in" whenver possible in the
shortest possible time. That means use it, leave it on, etc. For a TV that
means leave it on even when not watching, etc. It's much easier to get
satisfaction from the manufacturer or the retailer when the failure occurs
soon after purchase. If it last past 2 weeks I consider I have a good one
and operate it normally

Just my 2 cents worth (maybe even less

Heinz

 

[richard waters]

My .02 cents worth.
In my business I sell and install electronic devices in factories that
are used mainly on CNC and NC machine tools. Most of the time this
stuff is very reliable and lasts the life of the system (meaning when they
get rid of the machines the stuff is still working). When we do have
a failure of a device, the smoking gun is almost always a power
surge of some sort. Maybe it's a coincidence, but usually my contacts
at the plants can remember that an electrical storm of some significant
magnitude passed by within the past few weeks. We've found that the
components don't always fail at the time of the alleged surge, but some
time later.

I understand that this may be a myth. However, we hardly ever
have failures during the Winter when such storms are infrequent. Also,
they seem to peak during the Spring and early Summer when storms
are at their peak.

So don't dismiss too soon the theory that an electrical storm
was at fault.

I'm only going on what I know,
Richard Waters '76 PB, Troy, MI
- ----

>
> the 120 VAC line could be a possible fault, however rare. >>
>
> Arch - I don't see how 230 volts could possibly happened since I assume that
> you plug it into a 110-120v line where you store it. You didn't mention that
> there was any electrical storm when you described the blow out so I suspect
> that can be ruled out as well. I interpret their reply as "not having the
> faintest idea". Sometimes electrical components just give up. My experience
> is that once they have "burned in" for a few hours they should last a good
> long time. Most electronic failures occur in relatively new equipment; but
> ---- you never know.
>
> Has Heinz any ideas on this?
>
> Emery Stora
> 77 Kingsley
> Santa Fe, NM
>
> Emery Stora

 

[hdavis]

- -snip-
>you plug it into a 110-120v line where you store it. You didn't mention
that
>there was any electrical storm when you described the blow out so I suspect
>that can be ruled out as well. I interpret their reply as "not having the
>faintest idea". Sometimes electrical components just give up. My
experience
>is that once they have "burned in" for a few hours they should last a good
>long time. Most electronic failures occur in relatively new equipment; but
>---- you never know.

Infant mortality in integrated circuits is the main failure mechanism -
except for a class of out-of-spec uses. Normally ICs have a bathtub failure
curve - higher failure rates initially, followed by a flat failure rate
period of time, and finally the "wear out" portion of the curve. As a rule
of thumb, if you get 30 days continuous use on an electronic item you are
through the infant mortality period.

The danger with refurbed electronics is that sometimes the components that
DIDN'T fail the first time received a stress beyond their limits that only
slightly damaged the part. As time goes on these damaged areas in the IC
grow with normal use until the failure site is large enough to cause a
complete breakdown. What happens when the part fails depends on the exact
circuit topology and the failure mechanism. This is one reason why PCs that
have bad power supplies sometimes start having memory and motherboard
failures weeks or even months after the power supply has been replaced.

OTOH, in most electronics distribution channels "refurb" really means that
the product was returned because the purchaser couldn't figure out how to
hook it up, it wasn't compatible, or they changed their mind. Once
returned, the merchandise is not able to be sold as new. (Fry's Electronics
does put these units back on the retail shelf with a sticker saying they
are retruned units.)

Henry

Henry Davis Consulting, Inc / new product consulting
PO Box 1270 / product readiness reviews
Soquel, Ca 95073 / IP reviews
ph: (831) 462-5199 / full service marketing
fax: (831) 462-5198
http://www.henry-davis.com/ http://www.henry-davis.com

 

[richard waters]

I've had good results with refurbished stuff. My last 3 laptops were
refurbished and I only replaced them because of Bill Gates. My
StatPower TC40 and Protawatz inverter have been problem free
so far (that sound you hear is me knocking on wood).

You have a valid point. When you see a pile of the same product
being offered as refurbished. Then walk, don't run, to the nearest
exit.
Richard Waters '76 PB, Troy, MI
- --

>
> when I see a very large pile of a product that has been refurbished, I
> do not buy that product. An example is CD writer disk drives. I have
> found the only the HP ones work well.. I recently made three trips back
> to Frys to return CD drives that did not work. I started with the $160
> dollar referb unit (big mistake) and moved up until I got to the $250 HP
> unit which worked first time. Often the new models fix problems that
> the Old models had. No guarantees the new model is bug free, but when
> there is a pile of 100 rebuilt models on the floor, I know something is
> wrong and it is not all operator error.
>

 

[edgar t. kremer]

I'm going to get into hot water here, but my recommendation on computers and
such is to leave them run all the time unless they are really only used
occasionally. Most problems are encountered at turn-on.

- ---------------------------------
My livelihood has been electronics for the past 45 years. There have always been
2 schools of thought as to whether to "leave it on" or "turn it off." In the
"old days", when tubes reigned supreme, it might have been better to leave the
filaments on if you could control them separately, as the sudden "jolt" of
applied power could "pop" them due to the sudden rise in temp. Part of my duties
in broadcast TV was the control of a 100,000 watt xmtr. No precaution was ever
issued concerning shutting down the entire xmtr., including the filaments.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have serviced over 20K mobile electronic
units. I can say that I never saw a failure I could attribute to "turn-on,
turn-off" frequency. Most equipment failed during operation. I have thousands of
dollars worth of TV production equipment. None of it stays on. It has survived
many years w/o a single failure. I believe the solid state era swings the "leave
it on" or "turn it off" vote in favor of "turn it off."

- --
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
& GMC Schematics Web site &
& http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/greenside/321/ &
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&