Smörgåsbord

Posted by Wicher

Topic: Tech

September 1st
2010

Last night my Sheevaplug’s power supply unit blew up. Slept clean through it but I think the fumes were responsible for the unorthodox dreaming I did that night. Incidentally, the dream was about electronics. I dreamt I was part of some development project, bringing electronics to the Indian countryside and I had just invented this incredibly tiny airplane which could be made from readily available components such as tins and shrubs. It could fly a route autonomously (!) and had a cargo net which could be used for transporting lumber, cattle, children – anything a farmer family would need transported. The size of a large model airplane, one was supposed to hold on to its landing gear (with one’s legs taking over landing gear functions – better bring some bandages) and enjoy the flight. So I was flying around the hot Indian plains, soldering iron tucked under my belt, spreading the tale of this quantum leap in mobility in the land of Vishnu and Sheeva.

Back to my Sheevaplug. It was no more. A capacitator in the power supply unit (that converts 230VAC to 5VDC) had made a complete mess of itself. And the rest of the PSU. It looks like burnt Marshmallows but smells worse.
Also, the button cell that keeps the system clock running when power is lost, had swollen to unhealthy dimensions and had barfed its contents over part of the mainboard:

Well, at least I’m not alone in getting the marshmallow treatment. It appears to be a heat issue on the first version of the development kit.

Amazingly, the PSU still supplied about 2V, enough to make the blue LED blink to signal me that my marshmallows were ready.

I keep this box with old AC/DC adapters around. I’ve adapted my Sheevaplug to contain a socket to plug in a jack from an external 5VDC 2A supply, replaced the CMOS battery, and after some initial problems with the unit losing track of time after being powered down, all is working fine again. But better not take this Sheevaplug to the scorching heat of the land of Sheeva.