Xecuter Response to CK3 Pro Burn-Out Issues

March 7th, 2009, 11:15 Posted By: wraggster

Having received a few reports on the CK3 Pro burning out for some users we did some major investigating and here are our results:

First of all, there seems to be 2 problems that are happenning, one is the 5V trace burnt out, the other one is PL-2303 becoming hot / failing, and here are our findings:

1. 5V trace burnt out: This certainly happens with users plugging the power cable in the wrong way, if you plugged power cable up-side down, then the 5V power was connected to Ground directly and burnt out the trace when turning on the switch, that's why users always say the 5V trace burned out, but never said that 12V/3.3V trace was burned out, and every piece of CK3 Pro/Lite tested in the factory with PC USB detected test and power output tooling test before they ship out, so it's the ONLY reason to burn out the 5V trace -> the Power Cable was plugged up-side down, anyway, we are now making CK3 with PPTC protection as reported earlier, so this should solve that issue problem.

2. PL-2303 (CK3 PRO IC) became hot: A few users post about they found the PL Chip getting hot by plugging the USB cable only; we thought the PL chip was burning out for an unknown reason as we couldn't reproduce (for your information, the PL chip gets power from USB port only, it doesn't get any power connected to the CK3 Pro, and there are only 2 data traces connected between PL chip and CK3 Pro, no more!) So we have discovered that it is damaged from the input power of the PL chip, which it gets from the USB port, and if the USB port supports 5V power which is not stable or if another USB cable is used that is poor quality, then it might let the PL chip work with not reliable 5V power, then it may become damaged. We will change the layout to add more protection components on the power circuit of PL chip to compensate for unstable USB 5v sources.

RECOMMEND: Try a Motherboard USB port in the back of the PC (Not add-on card or front usb connector)

Please not that over 80k have shipped and we have received a total of 203 returns which have all been replaced. Please follow your suppliers warranty instructions on purchase as they are all different. If we receive any faulty stock we replace immediatley. Please bear in mind that if the 5v trace is burnt out then some suppliers may not swap out due to the instructions not being followed regarding the DVD cable being the correct way around and this may be classed as physical damage.

We take great care in providing a quality product and many many thousands of users have reported great success. You will always expect a returns rate, however we stand by our warranty and are committed to giving the greatest of customer care.

We have attached a few images to show our test procedures.

http://team-xecuter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48672

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