Uh oh, magic smoke

uConsole
1

Received my uconsole on Monday (yay!). Sat down on Monday evening to build it, followed the guide page by page etc.

Popped two batteries in, fully charged and in good condition, pressed the power button and heard a fizzing noise that was very swiftly followed by the dreaded magic smoke and disgusting smell.

I pulled the batteries immediately and haven’t tried to power it on since, I’ve disassembled it and I think I can see some damage - is it possible to obtain spare board and screens as I think there’s damage to the ribbon cable.

Is it worth raising to clockworkpi via email? I’m obviously irritated that my brand new toy blew up within hours of receipt, but I can’t rule out an error on my part whilst building - though I was pretty careful.

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Pics attached, thought I’d taken some of the screen ribbon but I must not have.

2

you can certainly buy spare parts. this was my first concern in case something happens. just email them or ask if its valid for replacement.

just curious though, what battery did you use?

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3

absolutely. they replace broken screens in picocalc even if people were careful.

alex@clockworkpi.com
help@clockworkpi.com

4

Thanks guys, I’ll shoot them an email later today. Appreciate it.

I have some sanyo batteries ordered, I think I saw Rex recommend them but the ones I used for testing are Fogstar (image attached).

I’ve used their products in vapes and other equipment for years with no issues (not these batteries, these are less than 4 months old).

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5

The batteries i recommend are the Samsung 35Es.

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6

Ah yes, that’s what I meant - Sanyo was a typo. Cheers Rex.

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7

I’ve had good experiences emailing alex while my uconsole was still in the warranty period. clockwork pi replaced a screen and a mainboard while i was still covered.

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8

I’ve conversed with Alex and he’s sending me a new main board. I’m still unsure what happened but still think I did everything correctly, so hopefully just one of those things.

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9

you used vape batteries and made a vape!

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10

So was this a battery issue or a board issue?, I ask I was looking at using these fogstar batteries!

11

most probably mainboard, that almost never happens: I received mine yesterday and it went up in smoke