X10 Community Forum
💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: bitman on February 17, 2010, 08:26:15 PM
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Waaah Waaah Waah!!!
One time before (oh about 4 months ago), I came home from work grabbed my ICON remote and it was dead.
No Display, no control of anything. Oh no! - So I popped a battery out and put it back in. Whew! It came back to life.
Tonight the same thing happened but this time it won't come back on. No display, no control... Dead.
I left the batteries out for 1/2 hour and re inserted them to no avail.
I am ever so crestfallen.
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A memorial service will be held tonight in KDR's Chat (http://www.bdshost.com/ac) at 9:35 PM Eastern.
You have my condolences.
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We'll be there. :(
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It was a nice service. Also nice of Knightrider to repeat since bitman was late to his own remote's funeral! rofl
>!
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Had to install JAVA. ::)
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Had to install JAVA.
Yes... I thought it was sad as well.
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Hey bitman, I have an ICON remote left over from the beta test I'm not using. It's yours if you want it -- just cover shipping costs. Send me a PM and we'll arrange logistics.
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Wow.
That's nice of you.
PM Sent.
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My pleasure. I'm glad it's going to a good home...
X10 never did get these things working with AT&T U-verse >*<, so it was relegated to my personal land of misfit toys!
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Yup, The ICON is half baked, but so are my wife and I so it will be a good fit.
I just cracked the dead one open. My how cheaply made. Surprise, surprise.
Thanks again.
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Yup, The ICON is half baked, but so are my wife and I so it will be a good fit.
I just cracked the dead one open. My how cheaply made. Surprise, surprise.
Thanks again.
BITS,
Pretty unusual for an "out of the blue" failure if it wasn't dropped. If you have a solder iron you might try retouching all the connections. Also if it uses a crystal for the micro p, hold down the power button and touch the contacts of the crystal and see if the Icon starts. Knowing X10 they will use a very common frequency which you cna probably get a new crystal from All Electronics.
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I forgot my tool kit today but will get after it to try n' resurrect it.
May as well.
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Not a hammer I hope. :)
r,
eagle
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Not a hammer I hope. :)
r,
eagle
That's plan B. ;D
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At least... if you do use a hammer on it... use an X10 Hammer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMq_3QJ_C34).
And.... while I am posting videos. This is the cutest video on YouTube... my granddaughters first words (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVvK6qGw_k).
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jtykal gets a big +1 from me. Nothing is more helpful than lending spare parts to a friend.
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jtykal gets a big +1 from me. Nothing is more helpful than lending spare parts to a friend.
Amen to that! I received the ICON from jtykal today. And we are back in business.
Thanks again Jim.
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I love it when a plan comes together.
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Amen to that! I received the ICON from jtykal today. And we are back in business.
Thanks again Jim.
Happy to help Ron!
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I think I might know what killed my old ICON. Static.
I live at 9800tf in the high dry sky where relative humidity is anywhere from 0 to 7 percent in the winter.
My wife an I cant even smooch during the winter months without touching hands or something first which isn't so bad but the static is so bad a pre-pet of some sort before kiss is second nature and required unless you want sparky lips. My dog ducks when you go to pet her from all the static shocks to her noggin. Poor puppy.
Last night I put my laptop on the end table next to me and as I shuffled around my hand waved over the new ICON sitting on that table and it woke up.
Now I know I'm as cool as they come but never thought I was actually a magic man.. yea with the magic hands.
- Just kidding guys btw.
Guess it's time for some static guard, as I remember being able to static activate the old ICON too.
By the way the icon has some of the most high tech surface mount chip carriers I have ever seen. They look just like a black play dough blob with traces coming out from under it.
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Funny you should mention that, Ron.
Just before the memorial for your ICON, Bill suggested that static could have flashed the memory on your remote.
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......... Last night I put my laptop on the end table next to me and as I shuffled around my hand waved over the new ICON sitting on that table and it woke up.
Didn't steven r have a cat that would wake the ICON? And it was also agreed... it likely was cat static.
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The buttons on it only have 1.5v bias above ground.
Them's some small logic thresholds. 'Prolly common anymore though.
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Has anyone ever tried... or know anything about these kind of anti-static devices (http://www.sourcingmap.com/handy-anti-static-keychains-ring-p-11332.html)?
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Obviously not I. ;D
No reviews neither.
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A humidifier also helps reduce static charges, as well as minimize contraction of building materials and make the home easier to heat.
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Didn't steven r have a cat that would wake the ICON? And it was also agreed... it likely was cat static.
The static issue was brought up during the Beta testing and more shielding was suggested if I remember ::) :'
Even my none RF version wakes up with static. :(
Maybe a X10 hidden agenda:
Get you hooked on your Icon then zap it so you have to buy another to satisfy your dependency rofl
>!
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Didn't steven r have a cat that would wake the ICON? And it was also agreed... it likely was cat static.
Maybe a X10 hidden agenda:
Uh huh!
Just like the puffy capacitor saga!
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2580805/samsung_lcd_televisions_now_the_focus.html?cat=9#comments
This affects almost all LCDs made recently and many P5 motherboards until they went to solid caps.
Do don't suppose they build this "service failure" into the unit do ya?
--- oh here we go. :)+
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By the way the icon has some of the most high tech surface mount chip carriers I have ever seen. They look just like a black play dough blob with traces coming out from under it.
FYI Only,
It's called "C5 Array" by the inventor - Motorola...
Which means it is probably known by another name in the rest of the industry.
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6229097/claims.html This is a later "trim window" adaptation. I believe the original C5 mounting technology was pioneered by mother "M" in the 90s.
Main advantage is you do not have to "flop" board layout during board design like you would have to do if mounting an "off-shelf" die upside down in a ceramic chip carrier. But the design created more problems at the field repair end because the polyaminent substrait could absorb moisture during storage at the service facility, if not stored properly. The hot air bonder (a $13K soldering iron) would turn the embedded moisture to steam and the substrait would delaminate, making the part useless. Other than that...it works great! ;D
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It looks just like this.
Wiki says it's called a chip on a board. A carrierless chip that is protected with epoxy.
(http://www.rskey.org/~mwsebastian/reviews/atc139_pcb.jpg)
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It looks just like this.
Wiki says it's called a chip on a board. A carrierless chip that is protected with epoxy.
(http://www.rskey.org/~mwsebastian/reviews/atc139_pcb.jpg)
AH! My error.
No That isn't C5 mounting. That is mounting the DIE directly to the PC board. Mother M stayed away from direct mounting. The problem they saw with direct mounting was the difference in the thermal expansion characteristics of silicon die and glass or poly boards caused the wire bonds to break. However they were temperature testing to mil specs...the bonding had to survive very wide temperature variations. Which would not apply to consumer electronics.
Bits you are right...that is a huge chip bonded directly to the board. It is high tech just from the shear size. I would like to see the wire bonder for that.