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LuckyResistor / SnowFlakeProject

All open source data of the snow flake project.
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Snowflakes turning off randomly #6

Open druck13 opened 9 months ago

druck13 commented 9 months ago

After 3 or 4 years of working perfectly both of my sets of Pimoroni snowflakes have started turning themselves off after a period of anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours, sometimes just one set, but usually both sets within a few seconds of each other. They are powered from two different USB power supplies which work fine with Pi Zeros.

I looked at the configuration webpage to check I hadn't accidentally invoked some sort of auto switch off function using the button, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Any ideas?

LuckyResistor commented 8 months ago

Hello,

First of all, I apologize for my late response. I've encountered a similar issue with one decoration produced by Pimoroni, where some LEDs stayed on as if the microcontroller firmware suddenly stopped. In your case, do all the LEDs go black, or are some staying on?

From my experience, my own versions have been working flawlessly for several years. I don't believe this is a firmware issue; it seems more like a hardware problem. My guess, in order of likelihood, would be: a faulty capacitor, a faulty voltage regulator, hairline breaks in the flat band cables, oxidization on the connectors, or faulty solder joints. All of these could lead to lower voltage than expected, causing the microcontroller to stop.

If you have the necessary tools, I would be very interested in learning more. Could you please measure the voltage levels and check for any faulty capacitors? Also, I recommend raising this issue in the Pimoroni forums. It's probably the best place to get feedback from other users who may have encountered the same problem.