Netonix Forums

Hi

I'm reaching out because the Netonix.com site seems to down currently.

I am product director of a dealer based in Brisbane, Australia and I've received a few WS-8-150-DC back from a client to whom I sold around 20 pieces.

It seems that the client's site has modified the chassis to fit onto a truck body for WiFi/vehicle tracking. One of the returned units has clearly been damaged by a drill bit (though it's not obvious that the damage on its own was fatal.

My electronics technician has looked for more evidence of repairability, since it's obvious that it's not a warranty repair. My technician has requested to source LT8705A FE IC's, which are not available from RS/Farnell, but only from Alibaba. He's reluctant to source from there without some guidance.

We're willing to take some risk on our customer's behalf to source potential fixes in this scenario, but we'd prefer to get any feedback from Netonix engineers firstly.

I'm more than happy to make this request by email or to another place, but posting to this forum seems to be the only thing I can do at this moment.

Kind regards

David Dargie / NAS Australia

Sorry, yes the Netonix web site is down but the RMA portal is up which is http://rma.netonix.com as it is a different virtual server than our web store. Our site is hosted on AMAZON and we had issues with it today but our programmers are working on it.

As far as WS-8-150-DC, they are basically a single board which is the switch board and the power supply all in one and a chassis so if the SOC on the switch/power supply board is damaged or a PHY in the SOC is damaged the only economical choice is to replace the board as the labor involved in removing an SOC and installing a new one would be greater than the cost of a new board.

A replacement board for the WS-8-150-DC through our RMA process is $175.00 again keep in mind all that makes up that unit is that 1 board, a chassis, and a couple stickers, wires, and rubber feet.

The only time it is really economical to repair a WS-8-150-DC is if the unit powers up and you get console output from the serial console port. If no serial console output chances are the SOC is fried. It is also possible to check the pwr test points labeled on the PCB such as 1.5V / 24V / 3.3V and so on. Normally when a lower voltage like 1V to 3V shows zero volts is due to the SOC being fried and shorting out that power supply on the board.

As far as part # LT8705A, which is a buck-boost switching regulator controller, it can be acquired at any electronics component house like Mouser and Digikey, I am sure there are similar outlets in your country as well.

Thanks

I think my tech did find it at Digikey. I've suggested we order 3 pieces of that component.

We'll await the outcome of that one (which has obvious damage) before we try to RMA the other two.