I am awaiting assistance from a moderator. If this is the wrong sub-forum for this topic, then please assist me to move it to the correct forum where I can get help.
Greetings, thanks you for reaching out to us about this.
The plastic inside the SD card holder has manufacturing tolerances that are set and met, which are unchangeable from our end. Having 4 fail indicates that these may not be suitable for your use-case, so let’s explore what that might look like. It would be helpful if you could describe the mounting/use strategy employed - is the unit mounted to something that experiences vibration, or physical stress? If so, it may be too much for the small plastic to withstand (the spring inside oscillating, shaking, etc.) altogether.
( I did not get an email from the forum that anyone replied here)
Thank for the reply. However, these sockets break on their own if left with an SD card in them.
To answer your questions:
We have the boards sitting on a desk with a SanDisc SD card inserted. They are logging away, connected to a unit via a cable harness.
The problem then becomes evident after about 3 or 4 days in that the logging fails. Once this has happened, we find that the SD card socket no longer retains the SD card and it has by itself partially ejected. It will no longer hold in place and that is when I found that the socket has internally disintegrate.
This is clearly a manufacturing / QA defect on the socket. Likely a bad batch.
It has nothing to do with us or the environment.
We need to get these units replaced asap, please let me know how to proceed getting this done.
Understood; the reason vibration was suspected was o0n account of the marring on the top right corner of the board (I now suspect this is from popping the casing off)
Just to get a sense of the probabilities at-play here:
SparkFun has been utilizing that same SD card slot/manufacturer/supplier for 10+ years
~40% of our in-house board/products feature this slot…millions of products, 1 supply
There have been 4 known issues, total, since beginning its use.
It is very much NOT likely a defective batch, and is quite likely the way in which it is being used. Something is happening between the time the card is inserted, and 3-4 days later.
Verify the voltage being used matches; supplying 5v IO to a 3.3v board will cause the board to slowly burn up (much like what is being described in the last message)
The picture shows burns/solder splatter on the SD card encasement (metal shield, lower portion) and browned wiring…these would definitely be at the top of my list of suspects.
We’ll happily ship out some replacements, though - but if there’s solder touching the shield it will in all likelihood experience a similar fate
I would prefer to move to email communication as this here does not provide notifications of any reply to me and so I forgot to come back to check.
Also, I will have to provide details on where to ship the replacements. Hos do we best do that?
Russel, that plastic is so brittle that it will break into pieces when just touching it or poking it with a tweezer. So, the corner just broke off while I poked it, after opening actually.
These boards otherwise still function but only if the CD card is held by finger.
They were sitting in an office on a desk actually, when they failed all by themselves, one by one. Now they are in a box, waiting for instructions from Sparkfun
The metal part is bent because we opened the socket after it had failed.
f you purchased the board directly off our website, just [fill in the form on this page with your order number and the URL to this forum post and we will see what we can do for you.
If you purchased from a distributor or Amazon you will need to let them know you have a defective product and arrange with them for an exchange.](Return Policy - SparkFun Electronics)
They came from Digikey in the US who recommended contacting you directly. So here we are and now you are trying to direct me back in a circle.
They will need to be exchanged by ones with non faulty sockets that are not brittle and disintegrate. we are in Australia BTW and shipping stuff back and forth has huge implications. So please help me to get this resolved.
You’re going to need to work with Digi-Key on this since you made the purchase through them. Let them know the sockets on your boards have failed and see if they are able to replace them for you.
Sure, but how on earth does one get this information to someone at Sparkfun so it can be taken seriously?
I am also in contact with Digi Key but they are not able to tell me if any replacements they have on hand have the same issue.
Surely there has to come a point where someone at Sparkfun’s QA actually has a look at this issue and takes corrective action.
so far everyone is just avoiding the issue, look how long I have already struggled with this.
Let me tell you that in our operation, if anyone reports serious defect like this, we would be all over it to litigate the problem instead of deferring it.
The Openlog is one of our best products and we have sold many. Granted, there could have been a bad batch of SD card holders in your case, however, I have confirmed that we do QC the SD card holder during the testing process which involves inserting a micro SD card and removing it.
I apologize for the inconvenience your parts have caused you and I assure you based off of the information you have provided that the defects in your report are rare. Please do work with Digikey and see if they can assist you. Should they have any concerns you can have them contact SparkFun.
I have contacted DigiKey but not heard anything since.
It could be interesting to get one of your recent units and insert an SD card into it and leave it inserted for a week or 2 to see what happens. Would you be interested in trying that as an experiment?
I have received a full refund for 5 units from Digikey and they seemed to know about this issue already as I did not even have to return the faulty units.
Berntd, glad to hear that Digikey has resolved the issue.
I will take your feedback into consideration and do want to assure you that we have strict quality control processes on products that we manufacture in-house. I believe your case to be an anomaly and apologize for the inconvenience experienced here.
Please let us know how else we can be of assistance. Cheers for now.
