Board ever die on you???

[FredMnkyDad10]

Spend a couple hours yesterday and most of today working on getting some markers going.

Got seven of them going, well without paint and place to fire paint. Just tested for leaks and make sure bolt fires without issues.

I was saving this one for last because I figured all I had to do put on on/off, use the last bit of air and should be good to go.

got everything hooked up, air it up, no leaks, good so far. Go to turn it on, wont turn on. Check battery that is making contact, seems to be good. Battery was used on couple others for test, pretty new so it should be good.

Have you guys ever had a board die on you after sitting for a few years. Tadoa board, have used this Valhalla maybe 4 times before my long break from the game.
Thankfully I picked up couple extra boards for the other EvilEhm I was going to build. Hope those are not dead. Will also try new battery just in case.

Any other thoughts on what else it can be.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Yup happens. Very similar 07-08 ego board just stoped working on me one day. Resistors only last so long and paintball is not the best conditions for longevity.

[Trbo323]

I killed one, not really the same thing but close. Turns out boards don't like it when you solder the battery connections backwards

And I'm all honesty I'm a little surprised. Been doing this paintball thing for 17 years now, worked as basically field ones legacy tech for a bit and never had an actual board show up kia. Board issues? Yes sure but it always seemed to come down to a button, wire or battery connector. The board itself was fine

Just had 3 spyder boards that wouldn't turn on. All 3 had bad on/off switches, so ordered some new ones for the price of a happy meal and have 3 working spyders again

I MIGHT have one on my hands right now though. Spyder again, technically icon z, and it's not clapping the noid strong enough, replaced the capacitor and same thing. I'm not giving up on it yet, just not sure what to do next

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[Olsson]

So far just the one, knock on wood.

I serviced a friend's leaking Proto PM8, so I knew for sure that the board was working. He also played with it for a couple of times, before he let me have it for peanut money.
I aired it up a couple of days later - board completely dead. Thorough checking - yep, it was the board. Not the stock board, though, but 7th element, which IIRC does have a somewhat shaky reputation.

[FredMnkyDad10]

I killed one, not really the same thing but close. Turns out boards don't like it when you solder the battery connections backwards

And I'm all honesty I'm a little surprised. Been doing this paintball thing for 17 years now, worked as basically field ones legacy tech for a bit and never had an actual board show up kia. Board issues? Yes sure but it always seemed to come down to a button, wire or battery connector. The board itself was fine

Just had 3 spyder boards that wouldn't turn on. All 3 had bad on/off switches, so ordered some new ones for the price of a happy meal and have 3 working spyders again

I MIGHT have one on my hands right now though. Spyder again, technically icon z, and it's not clapping the noid strong enough, replaced the capacitor and same thing. I'm not giving up on it yet, just not sure what to do next

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Could it be one of those 9.6v boards, I just pulled out my spyder that has rocking trigger. The rechargeable battery that came with it says 9.6v.
off the marker, frame alone I put a regular 9v on it. It lights up but reads battery low, noid still claps pretty fast. But maybe with a load it might not fire at all.

[FredMnkyDad10]

Yup happens. Very similar 07-08 ego board just stoped working on me one day. Resistors only last so long and paintball is not the best conditions for longevity.

I so hope that's not the case, would suck to have 3 dead boards because I had them sitting around.

[Trbo323]

Technically yes. But I've never had one that didn't work fine on a fresh 9v

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[FredMnkyDad10]

Technically yes. But I've never had one that didn't work fine on a fresh 9v

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Could be. But if I remember correctly with this frame I forgot to charge the battery, I put in a new 9v and it worked well for couple hours then it started to act up.

Thanks all for the input, I will have to try a new battery the other boards and also look at the current one to see if I see any obvious issues maybe loose wire.

[glaman5266]

Factory Spyder boards pretty much require a 9.6V battery. You *can* use a 9V, but it won't last long.

Piranha boards, by contrast, work just fine for a good long while on a 9V.

[Euphie]

It seems unlikely, possible perhaps but I boards from the 90s still work so unless there was something badly designed or they were all poorly stored more than one board failing seems unlikely.

[Ecapnation]

I've shorted out a few intimidator boards, mostly on 2k5 conversions on classic bodies

[Shaftski]

Three letters....ESD

Most of these boards aren't grounded well. ESD precautions should be used when handling boards. Especially old ones.

Discrete components like resistors usually won't fail unless handling several amps of current for long periods of time . Most are metal film these days and don't degrade like carbon resistors form decades ago.

My money is on data corruption due to ESD.

[Grendel]

With a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) there are many ways for them to stop operating:

• Latent Defects - problems created during manufacture [Mfg] that degrade over time [e.g. EOS (Electrical Over Stress), ESD (Electro-Static Discharge), Internal/external Corrosion...etc)
• Tolerance Stack up leading to Latent Defects caused by running parts at or near their design limits. As stated above if the circuit was designed for 9.6VDC and you use a 9VDC battery and the design was already close to current limits operating at 9 VDC will accelerate failure due to running at or over the currents some of the parts can tolerate.
• Poor Design or execution of the design. Many people will take off the shelf "cookie cutter" designed sub-assembly circuits and stitch them to gather to get something to function without full circuit modeling and again leads to internal failure that appears to be "aging"
• After Mfg poor handling of the PCB and anything attached to the PCB. EOS or ESD {they are different} strikes to a circuit may kill something instantly or just "age" some of the parts and lead to eventual failure of a critical part. Usually micro-controllers are the most susceptible but MOSFETs used in power circuits are particularly susceptible and without power electronics tend to not function
• Poor soldering practices lead to bad joints and/or damage to parts that then will fail over time and use (again latent failures)
• Poorly written firmware that have common code crashes that may not be user visible that eventually lead to a critical error that the firmware will no longer run or even boot. In the case of booting issues it may appear "Dead" but in fact everything is there to run just the firmware instructions are not running to do anything
• Some cheaper made parts just fail due to age usually because of environmental attacks and may not be detectable by the human eye even under magnifications.
• on and on and on........

Good consumer electronics is designed typically (anymore) to survive 2 years of intermittent use. Anything that lasts longer then that isn't designed better but instead is due to tolerance stack up in your favor or due to the nature of the Mfg process doesn't lend itself to making it "cheaper".

How many of you Electronic Marker users use wrist/ankle straps that have been tested to be grounded and properly worn when removing, installing or working with one of these PCBs? How many of you store spare boards properly (anti-static bags in a clean low humidity environment and protected from physical damage). If you are not every time you pick-up and move especially carrying while walking is most liking causing EOS to your boards. Every time you EOS your board you are taking life away from if not killing it instantly. Then we have actual ESD failures which are usually the silent killer of PCBs in one event.

[Seajay]

My bet is on the solder traces. If the board isn't physically damaged it is probably able to be repaired. Cheap solder will degrade over time if not used.

Interestingly all of my Spyder boards work fine, some are very old. I have a few Tippmann boards for my Phenom and 3 of them don't work.

If you are feeling spicy you can try cooking the board to soften the solder. Use a toaster oven that can go to 250'F for 20 minutes. This is not re-flowing (you don't want the components falling off) but the solder should start to look shiny, then you give the board a try. Use tinfoil to prop the board up.

Or an electronics repair shop can use the correct tool to re-flow the traces.

[wthomas333]

Not sure if this has been discussed previously, but have any of you ever tried Corrosion X to protect electronic components in a paintball gun? I have used it quite a bit in RC stuff and it really seems to work well and also makes whatever you spray very water resistant, some would say waterproof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4z8QMgTEA4

[Seajay]

Never heard of it, but I do clear nail polish all the time to weatherproof boards. Doesn't help aging solder joints but works great against the wet.

[Arthur]

Not a common incident for me but yea over decades its happened, for sure. The board in my Etha 2 died just a few months ago. Played with it solid 5-6 years though.

I bought my DAM used with a busted stock board. No idea what the previous owner was doing with it. I just swapped it with a box rotor board. I owned a few of the first gen minis back in the day. I went through 2-3 boards on those playing in the rain, so definitely my bad.