Main

Manufacturing Archives

September 6, 2011

Poll: LED lamps overheating

LED overheating nightlight.jpgTemperature issues and LED lights have featured before in recall corner - see Recall Corner: LED lamp overheating - and there is now a new addition.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns of 'LED Night Lights Recalled by Camsing Global Due to Burn Hazard'. The CPSC has received five reports of the night lights "overheating, smoldering or melting" (no injuries have been reported).
"The LED night light contains flame retardant elements, plugs into an electrical outlet, has a white or blue LED bulb, and a clear bulb cover. "Model SBD01", the number "E314462" and "Made in China" are stamped on the back of the night light's plastic white base. The night lights measure about 1 3/4 inches wide by 3 3/4 inches high," says the CPSC.

Continue reading "Poll: LED lamps overheating" »

July 13, 2010

Maths problems bulge PC capacitors

Our attention was drawn to this one by David Manners, on his Mannerisms blog - Dell Up Against It For Dodgy PCs.

It involves some evidence in a case against Dell that it sold faulty PCs, which was highlighted by the New York Times. It seems the problem involved bulging Nichicon capacitors...
 
According to Mannerisms:
Apparently Dell told one customer it had run the computers 'too hard in hot confined spaces', and told another customer, the maths department of the University of Texas, that it had run the computers too hard by giving them difficult maths problems to solve.

Even the outside law firm defending Dell in the trial is said to have complained to Dell about 1,000 faulty Dell PCs they had bought.

Continue reading "Maths problems bulge PC capacitors" »

November 16, 2009

Xbox 360 hits striking failure rate

xbox red ring of death jpg.jpgWe've written about the Xbox 360 before - see Xbox 360 Recall: Penny Wise, Pound Stupid and Xbox Faults Cost Microsoft - but a new report has looked further into the failure rates of Microsoft's gaming console. A rather astonishing 23.7% have problems within the first two years...

The study by SquareTrade covered 16,000 consoles and found the Xbox eight times more likely to hit problems than the Nintendo Wii, and twice the Sony PS3, reports Information week.

The biggest reported failure for the Xbox 360? The notorious "red ring of death" - subject of a special warranty - that is associated with flashing red lights on the device and the display of an "E74" error message.

According to the report:

Continue reading "Xbox 360 hits striking failure rate" »

June 9, 2009

Poll: Key Fob Failure Diagnosis

key-fob1.JPGHere's something new. Let's bring your collective experience and knowledge to bear on a particular case brought before Made By Monkeys.

We recently highlighted a Mercedes key fob failure - please see Key Fob fails for surface mount leads - and lots of pics of the problem are available for inspection. We've identified seven possible causes of failure, but what are your thoughts? Multiple answers are possible, and feel free to suggest Other causes.



If you have any suggestions for future Made By Monkeys polls, do leave a comment below.

January 27, 2009

Keyless Entry Fob Sports Crappy Solder Job

 

Keyfob12.jpg

 dodgekeya.jpg

I live in a part of the world where I used to dread the frigid days when I had to deal with the nasty inconvenience of frozen car door locks on my 1995 VW Jetta. Solution: Hair dryer and a long extension cord. That is until the lock barrel finally corroded and fell out two years ago. (Really.)

Given my run-ins with mechanical locks, I am especially leery of electronic locking systems.

You might be too, after reading:

Continue reading "Keyless Entry Fob Sports Crappy Solder Job" »

November 11, 2007

Fortune Cookie Fails QC Test

Fortune.JPG

In a twist of real irony, here's the latest fortune my husband pulled out of a cookie. Rather than a full size stirp of paper with an actual fortune printed on it, the cookie contained what appears to be the trim that would normally be thrown away as scrap. Granted, he's kind of a luckless guy, but after getting this fortune containing a lecture on the evils of poor quality. one can only wonder just how well the cookie factory is following its own advice these days.

November 5, 2007

A Dog's RF Tag Fails - Is RoHS the Culprit?

Barney_Georgia_card.JPG
Over two million pets in the UK have an idENTICHIP RF tag in the scruff of their neck that works as a kind of electronic ID tag. So what are the chances that two new devices based on the same technology -- which has had a good track record up until now -- would fail in three different dogs (including Barney, shown here with his pal Georgia, who coincidentally lives next door to one of the other dogs). And then to have those same devices weirdly and spontaneously rectify themselves after "xray"' investigations?

The odds must be, well, big enough to be almost impossible.

Continue reading "A Dog's RF Tag Fails - Is RoHS the Culprit?" »

What -- You've Never Seen a Mutant Ninja Sea Slug Before?

Hellsfactorya.jpg
View entire comic strip.
Graphic artist Doug MacLaughlin and I created this pilot for a comic strip last year. Called "Hell's Factory," it's a reality-based comic strip inspired by design engineers' tales of insanity on the shop floor. Had a hellish experience yourself? Share your best "from Hell" experience and we'll send you a MBM tshirt and your story could be written into an upcoming episode! Email me at kfield@reedbusiness.com.

About Manufacturing

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Made By Monkeys in the Manufacturing category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

Made in China is the previous category.

Materials/Materials Processing is the next category.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

RSS Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]

Sign up for the fortnightly Made By Monkeys eNewsletter. Get the blog highlights straight to your email inbox, no fuss. Just tick the option for Made By Monkeys.
ElectronicsNews on Twitter Follow ElectronicsNews

Recent Comments

  • Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on Sainsbury's auto-generated coupon fails to tempt: 'Today's shop was the same price as everyone else' Like read more
  • Graham Franklin on Sainsbury's auto-generated coupon fails to tempt: Yes - I had a £0.01 last week, and this read more
  • Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on Video: Toshiba shakes, rattles, and rolls its solid state drives: Like it, Tony. We need to document that spectrum of read more
  • Tony on Video: Toshiba shakes, rattles, and rolls its solid state drives: Thats not vibration or shock, its a mild wobble. A read more
  • Alun Williams on The cost of mobile handsets: Very fair points - not all the data has been read more
  • Les-M on The cost of mobile handsets: That's a pretty useless graph without knowing the numbers of read more
  • Glen beestone on The cost of mobile handsets: Blackberry OS runs on hardware made by RIM Apple IOS read more
  • Keith on The cost of mobile handsets: Erm.... isn't comparing hardware faults by platform like comparing car read more
  • LJ on Video: Toshiba shakes, rattles, and rolls its solid state drives: Fine, but if it's inside the laptop and it's vibrating read more
  • Richard on Home-brewed phone charger: "What can go wrong?" Almost nothing. Using a car charger read more

Archives