New post on main page: manufacturing hiccup. Please keep comments about it in this thread!

[texy]

Get hold of a can of freezer spray. It"s probably a capacitor dried up over time.

T.

[shirro]

Great disclosure on the problem and really nice explanation in the blog. Now the important thing is when the boards get shipped back is to make sure they don't get delivered to the wrong address as that would really mess things up. You need to send all 10,000 to element14, 73 Ferndell St, Chester Hill, NSW, 2162, Australia. Cheers.

[Jongoleur]

shirro said:


Great disclosure on the problem and really nice explanation in the blog. Now the important thing is when the boards get shipped back is to make sure they don't get delivered to the wrong address as that would really mess things up. You need to send all 10,000 to element14, 73 Ferndell St, Chester Hill, NSW, 2162, Australia. Cheers.



Wellllllll....  They could probably ship 10,000 somethings.  Would 10,000 previously enjoyed ethernet sockets be ok? 

[TheEponymousBob]

Sympathy and kudos for the honest—even rather interesting—disclosure go to the Foundation.

Kudos also go either to everyone in the thread, for keepin" the heid, or to the mods for effecting that illusion

And hoorah to the server for enduring the inevitable Slashdotting with grace.

[shirro]

Jongoleur said:


Wellllllll....  They could probably ship 10,000 somethings.  Would 10,000 previously enjoyed ethernet sockets be ok? 


It wouldn't be the first time they dumped their trash here.

[PisRUS]

News item on thereg:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....etworking/

Some interesting comments there (click on the comments towards the bottom of the article) re UK manufacturing towards the end of the first page of comments and into the second. Not saying anyone's comments are right or wrong, just observing.

Also some "experts" (?) in the comments stating that the incorrectly fitted LAN jacks won"t be replaced, but that the "faulty" boards will be scrapped and new ones will be made. I sincerely hope not – those faulty units could be used as "enhanced" Model A"s! Alternatively, sell them to people who are able to replace the incorrect LAN jacks themselves.

[scep]

TheEponymousBob said:


...

Kudos also go either to everyone in the thread, for keepin" the heid, or to the mods for effecting that illusion


You really should see the trash folder in the blog admin: it's empty apart from the usual spam. People have been incredibly understanding and helpful - it's a real tribute to the forum community.

I personally would like to thank everyone for their positive comments and feedback and good humour today - I've been knocking around the Web for a long time but sometimes things still surprise me.  (Sorry if it's all a bit corny, but I've just had a really good day. Cheers everyone! )

[Lynbarn]

scep said:


TheEponymousBob said:


...

Kudos also go either to everyone in the thread, for keepin" the heid, or to the mods for effecting that illusion


You really should see the trash folder in the blog admin: it's empty apart from the usual spam. People have been incredibly understanding and helpful - it's a real tribute to the forum community.

I personally would like to thank everyone for their positive comments and feedback and good humour today - I've been knocking around the Web for a long time but sometimes things still surprise me.  (Sorry if it's all a bit corny, but I've just had a really good day. Cheers everyone! )





Ditto I wasn't sure what to expect when the announcement was made, but it has been a pleasure seeing the way the news was received by everyone - and not only in this blog/forum either!

[MarshallBanana]

drgeoff said:


Smartybones said:


If they are in the UK, how about sending boards out to customers with the correct RJ45 socket ready to be installed by the customer, at a discounted price?


You missed out the smiley at the end of that.

I reckon the ratio of people who could successfully do that to the number of people who want a RP is rather small.  The number of bu**ered boards, burnt fingers and burnt down houses(!) might be rather high.



hahaha, you just reminded me of the time when i fixed my alarm-clock by soldering the wires back to it's connectors using a normal kitchen-knife heated by the open flame of the gas-oven (still works today that little fella)

wouldn't recommend this method for the raspi though, it's kinda messy *lol*

[Ray_GTI-R]

I will honour my pre-existing obligation to purchase this item.

Thereafter I will wait for, say ... a couple of years and see if the project matures from pre-beta/pre-startup into something slightly more mature like an experimental project. Maybe by the time I retire (2016) a [self-censored] well thought-out finished product will appear.

FWIW If this works at a minimum level I will contribute my limited knowledge to help improve it for everyone else, for a short period (months, at my age I have a very short attention span).

[johnbeetem]

plugwash said:

...
Also because of the aforementioned center taps the pinouts of a jack with integrated magnetics will almost certainly differer from a plain jack. http://www.smsc.com/media/Down.....12_sch.pdf So without the correct magnetics things are unlikely to work at all.
From looking at the photos of the bare RasPi PCB (there are links at http://elinux.org/Rpi_Hardware ), it seems RasPi uses Enet jack pins 1+3 and 4+6 for the TX and RX differential pairs.  This is consistent with some magnetic jacks.  A non-magnetic jack uses 1+2 and 3+6 for the pairs, same as an Ethernet cable.  Magnetic jacks have all sorts of different pinouts, so I can see why it's difficult to get the correct one.

[plugwash]

John Beetem said:


From looking at the photos of the bare RasPi PCB (there are links at http://elinux.org/Rpi_Hardware ), it seems RasPi uses Enet jack pins 1+3 and 4+6 for the TX and RX differential pairs.  This is consistent with some magnetic jacks.  A non-magnetic jack uses 1+2 and 3+6 for the pairs, same as an Ethernet cable.  Magnetic jacks have all sorts of different pinouts, so I can see why it's difficult to get the correct one.


Looking at http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-.....rbers2.png in addition to the yellow tracks running off towards the ethernet chip there is a brown track heading off to a couple of passive components.

Comparing with the reference design schematic I linked in my previous post I'm pretty sure that said pair of passive components are the resistor and capacitor connected to the center tap. Unfortunately the datasheet for the LAN9512 doesn't seem to give any "theory of operation" for the ethernet side of things but based on my knowledge of ethernet devices i'm pretty sure it's important for ensuring the common mode voltages are right and absorbing DC bias currents.

[timn]

I think that rmm200's suggestion above of initially shipping 100 as as an acceptance batch sounds like a good idea under the circumstances. Get them out to some techie guys to play with for a week to see if we discover any other anomalies. You can't afford a recall of 10,000 units.

[PisRUS]

Regarding the faulty 10,000 - is my understanding of this correct:

a) The initial batch of 10,000 was shipped over to the UK a few days ago where the foundation discovered the problem with the LAN jack

b) They returned all 10,000 units to the manufacturer in China

c) That batch have now had the jacks replaced with the correct one and these are being shipped back to the UK next week

Is that right?

[rurwin]

I would not be surprised if an initial shipment of 2,000 got to the UK before the problem was noticed. Not that it matters especially.

[RaTTuS]

PisRUS said:


Regarding the faulty 10,000 - is my understanding of this correct:

Is that right?


Yes AIUI also

well - they did a tool up run - of a few - these where OK - and shipped to UK

then they where given the go ahead to run the rest of the 10k

this is on reason why there is only 10k in the initial batch - [smaller and it costs a lot more to tool up] larger and it cost s a lot more to fix if there are prblems

they are fixing because it is their problem they made.

you have to realise that the beta boards are just that; and now the 1st production run is so that everything works OK - these go to being released into the wild where the 1st lucky people are the proper beta runners for software etc...

after it has been in the wild there may be a revision 1.1 of the board and then a 1.2 etc

you have to look at the early ones as having some problems somewhere down the line when people start using them in all sorts of ways ...

[Kernel]

BBC article on the topic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/tech.....y-17311146

(sorry if already posted)

There still seem to be mistakes in the media such as "All three firms that signed up to distribute the machine have sold their initial stock. " 3?

[johnbeetem]

plugwash said:


John Beetem said:


From looking at the photos of the bare RasPi PCB (there are links at http://elinux.org/Rpi_Hardware ), it seems RasPi uses Enet jack pins 1+3 and 4+6 for the TX and RX differential pairs.  This is consistent with some magnetic jacks.  A non-magnetic jack uses 1+2 and 3+6 for the pairs, same as an Ethernet cable.  Magnetic jacks have all sorts of different pinouts, so I can see why it's difficult to get the correct one.


Looking at http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-.....rbers2.png in addition to the yellow tracks running off towards the ethernet chip there is a brown track heading off to a couple of passive components.

Comparing with the reference design schematic I linked in my previous post I'm pretty sure that said pair of passive components are the resistor and capacitor connected to the center tap.


Yes, those Enet jack pins 2 and 5 are center taps.  I expect the RasPi physical Enet is the same as the LAN9512 reference design, except that they use magnetic jacks with a different pinout.  I'm not sure, but I think the transmit drivers on most Enet chips are open drain, i.e., they only pull down.  The center tap provides a common pull-up.  The transmitter pulls down one side for a positive pulse and pulls down the other for a negative pulse.  From the schematic, the LAN9512 supports Auto MDIX which means that the chip can automatically swap the TX and RX pairs so you don't need to find a cross-over cable.  So the TX and RX circuits are exactly the same, with both TX and RX termination.