Bfl jalapeno failures and USB problems, SOLUTION FOUND

[lightfoot]

After a quick read thorough, my 2 cents worth.

Am sure alot of these units will have been pluged in using a US/Euro adapter.

The PSU I received is auto switching so voltage is not a problem.

I have seen many of these adapters that do NOT carry an earth/ground pin. In this case the PSU may technically fail safe but the adapter is preventing the fault path to achieve this, raising the potential between the chasis ( and USB GND) to the ground. OUCH. So the fault path becomes dependent on the USB connection to the PC, be careful plugging that baby in 

Easy solution, cut the plug off and put a local one on, seek advice on connections

Brown = Live/Active
Blue = Neutral
Green/Yellow = Earth/Ground

or

red 2 red , black 2 black and blue to bits   

I think the problem is the power supplies have a capacitor going from one of the two AC pins to the DC neutral. This can be very helpful for increasing the power factor, but if the capacitor were to short then it would conduct one of the 240 volt legs to the negative line on the jally.

This 120 volts would not be a problem except for the fact that it goes to the ground of the USB line. Which then goes to your computer. If your computer's USB jacket is grounded, then 120 volts goes from wall through broken capacitor through jally through USB cable to computer to frame ground back to the utility. Boom.

Speaking of which, one should be able to replace this chip with an LQFP 48 pin one which would be a hell of a lot easier to solder. Recommended for followup.

C

[lightfoot]

Thank you very much for your report, lightfoot.
The same thing has happened to my friend's Jala. Power adapter failure, and the unit not recognized thereafter. Booting normally, LED flashing first, than steady, two LEDs for two chips... So I believe the PSU has taken the USB chip with it, as you have found and verified.
It's not quite simple to obtain a new one though. There are several types & packages of FT232, but the HQ one is not frequent at all...
Mouser wants 40 euros (!) for p&p (or I've failed to find a better offer), maybe Farnell will be more acceptable, its shipping is "only" 150% of the price of the component itself... :-))) I've left this on the owner of the cube. I myself don't have one unfortunately...

BTW, what's Miller? A sort of beer, I guess? ;-)

How about the HF? The things cost 5 bucks here in the US. What's with the high euro price?

C

[gourmet]

I think the problem is the power supplies have a capacitor going from one of the two AC pins to the DC neutral. This can be very helpful for increasing the power factor, but if the capacitor were to short then it would conduct one of the 240 volt legs to the negative line on the jally.

This 120 volts would not be a problem except for the fact that it goes to the ground of the USB line. Which then goes to your computer. If your computer's USB jacket is grounded, then 120 volts goes from wall through broken capacitor through jally through USB cable to computer to frame ground back to the utility. Boom.

Speaking of which, one should be able to replace this chip with an LQFP 48 pin one which would be a hell of a lot easier to solder. Recommended for followup.

C

Suppose the capacitor goes from one AC pin to the DC "ground", as you say.
Then, in Europe, you won't get 120 V there. The 230 or 240 V lines aren't symmetric to the ground. When you're lucky, the capacitor is between AC neutral and DC neutral. When unlucky, you get full 240 V there.

Another possibility might be there's a "bridge" in the PSU, halving the input voltage, and its center is connected to the output neutral... This way it could produce 120 V in 240 V environment.

The LQFP package has a little bit larger outer dimension (ends of the pins to the opposite ends). So it won't fit on the PCB pattern exactly. The pins will sit on the PCB pads, but will exceed them a bit, so they can't be soldered standard way as on their regular pads.

[lightfoot]

There is a fair bit of extra pad, might fit. Worth a try...

[gourmet]

(...)
There are several types & packages of FT232, but the HQ one is not frequent at all...
Mouser wants 40 euros (!) for p&p (or I've failed to find a better offer), maybe Farnell will be more acceptable, its shipping is "only" 150% of the price of the component itself... :-))) (...)

How about the HF? The things cost 5 bucks here in the US. What's with the high euro price?

C

The price of the coponent itself is OK here too, but the p&p is sometimes unreasonable.. :-)
Maybe we'll try the HF one, if it'll be more easy to get. Hope we can try today.

[MrTeal]

There is a fair bit of extra pad, might fit. Worth a try...

Bonus style points if it doesn't, but you bend the leads over like a PLCC.

[chuckscap]

I bought two spare PSUs for my Jallys on Amazon for $8.00 each.  They work great.  BFL also sent me a replacement for the first one that died.  I just figured it was worth $16 to keep them up and running while waiting.

[lightfoot]

Makes sense. With these three new jallies, I ordered the 3 wire PCIx cable so I wouldn't have to use the power supplies. Guess what didn't come :-)

Oh well, so I get to cut off the wires and hook them into my corsair. Man that thing is under a serious load right now, especially with 20gh per jally.

C