• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

MEP 805B 806B CIM repairs

peapvp

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,108
1,226
113
Location
Basehor, KS
Back to our favorite problem child.

We got a CIM of a 806B, where the LCD would stop displaying anything right when the Boot / BIOS part ended and then after a while would not display anything at all anymore.

after initial inspection, we were able to turn LCD backlight on and off.

Then we disconnected the two idc connectors from LCD to motherboard and hooked up a vga/svga monitor.

the video chip is not running. So no VGA/SVGA either

motherboard is a SAT520-Plus with no PC104, Ethernet and cmos battery.
This was the lowest cost version of this SBC from winsystems and was purchased in 2003

This is also the version which does not store anything in RAM and BIOS cannot be changed due to the lack of cmos battery.
This CIM has to be turned off after each start / run to fully reset

We suspect that the electrolytic smd caps went to capacitor heaven which is typical for capacitors of this type after so many years.

we will check them tomorrow and then see if this caused any damage to the video chip or not

Stay tuned

EFD76EDF-45FB-49EF-BAB6-302EF2093DD3.jpeg
6E77DC01-42C6-4165-A702-8F50452475FF.jpeg
827360E9-D7E1-428E-B4B1-53CE13C5E714.jpeg
 
Last edited:

peapvp

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,108
1,226
113
Location
Basehor, KS
Ok, all capacitors passed the first test, and Transistors, Diodes and Caps on bottom layer passed first test.

but the Video Chip does not put out HSYNC / VSYNC or any signal on the two LCD idc’s

D8A87F08-486D-41BB-BAA8-29D0A31D24BE.jpeg
1EA24E5B-1C70-458B-ACCA-332F511A109D.jpeg
2D163934-54BE-45A4-A794-32EE3478F99F.jpeg
661B6B4D-378A-40A3-8EC8-90A03F2587B6.jpeg3BA0B59B-D2BA-4DA0-981B-5BE0709AF0CD.jpeg
When board is powered up and nothing is connected, Video Chip gets warm (it shouldn’t)

we are going to attempt a repair and have new Video Chips coming from Hong Kong.

one questions remains unanswered:
Is the LCD still good or did it fail and damage the Video Chip or did the Video Chip just fail by itself?

Stay tuned……..
 

Mullaney

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Supporting Vendor
7,712
19,755
113
Location
Charlotte NC
Ok, all capacitors passed the first test, and Transistors, Diodes and Caps on bottom layer passed first test.

but the Video Chip does not put out HSYNC / VSYNC or any signal on the two LCD idc’s

View attachment 876040
View attachment 876041
View attachment 876042
View attachment 876043View attachment 876044
When board is powered up and nothing is connected, Video Chip gets warm (it shouldn’t)

we are going to attempt a repair and have new Video Chips coming from Hong Kong.

one questions remains unanswered:
Is the LCD still good or did it fail and damage the Video Chip or did the Video Chip just fail by itself?

Stay tuned……..
.
Do you remember - back in the day - when "Made In Hong Kong" or "Made In Taiwan" was the cheapest, most useless stuff in the world?
 

peapvp

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,108
1,226
113
Location
Basehor, KS
A general note as to the Video Chip.
CHIPS is a subsidiary of Intel Corporation and this particular video chip is a HiQVideo Accelerator, which was introduced in the mid to late nineties.
This particular device here was manufactured in week 20 of 2004 (May 10th to 26th).
So, it lastet 18 years. This was one of the early 3.3VDC supply parts and those parts usually expire after around 15 years or so.
5VDC Supply IC’s can last up to 40 or 50 years because of the much lower currents due to the higher supply voltage.

The replacement chip coming is NOS. I will update the manufacturing date here when the part arrives.

The outsourcing / offshoring to the Far East started with Ronald Regan in the early to mid eighties.
The first offshore facilities for Intel, Texas Instruments and IBM for silicone parts where Taiwan and Hong Kong (still British at the time).
However, the Hong Kong Chinese Businesses contracted with state owned facilities in mainland China.

I have IC’s here from this time which are Intel Parts and which had been made in Taiwan in the late 80’s and those have a B, D or Q Demil……..

all this transpired during the Regan / Bush senior years.

just to be politically correct.

I personally have never understood of why corporations in the US where permitted to produce parts for projects with the highest security classifications outside the United States.

Texas Instruments also produced many IC’s in Latin America, especially El Salvador and Guatemala.

All those facilities where consolidated in the 2000’s and moved to mainland China.
 
Last edited:

peapvp

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,108
1,226
113
Location
Basehor, KS
Update:

The silicone arrived yesterday from you know where, but they didn’t pack the new IC into Anti Static bag…….

So, I opened a case…..
Will keep you posted

EC160230-1F2D-4EC5-B28E-C45D232423CD.jpeg
F4E28866-16F3-4F70-BDFA-595297B2AF8E.jpeg
7A1E6F01-FE54-4CA2-95FC-9C9A18C85072.jpeg

I am getting tired of this…..
Even the smallest, most logical thing seems to be a huge uphill battle.

I am glad that my company doesn’t have anything produced, procured, built etc in China

I couldn’t sleep with this kinda stuff
And then, on top off it, Sams Club screwed up my favorite mozzarella tomato salad which I bought yesterday afternoon and ate for dinner.
I had stomach problems all night.

In Germany, the Bavarian’s say:
O Herr
Schmeiß Hirn ra

Oh dear Lord
Please through some Brain down here

Peter
 

peapvp

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,108
1,226
113
Location
Basehor, KS
Ok folks,

We are making some progress here. The SBC will get a new Video Chip and we investigated this a little bit more.

As to cause of this:

The CIM has 3 Heat elements attached to LCD to be able to operate in climate below 0C / 32F

The 3 elements are controlled by a control circuit which is integrated into the PSU PCB in the CIM

This circuit utilizes a NTC which has a app. resistance of 120 Ohm @ 74F

In our case here, this NTC failed open ( infinite resistance ) due to Genset operating in hot climate in direct sunlight.

Since this is a NTC, the resistance decreases with increasing temperature. A infinite resistance like in our case, means the control circuit sees this an ambient temperature of like - 100C / -148F and turns on all three heat elements full throttle

At like a 70 to 100F ambient temperature, this will cook the LCD to well done.

Then the circuitry on the LCD fails and that then in turn will destroy the Video Chip........

Peter


BE2D9EF8-248A-4372-8AFD-90E2A3840395.jpeg9057B478-DA5D-4BAD-A357-A923A76DBC08.jpegED848499-B07A-4B72-9296-74521B8C393C.jpeg
 
Top