Iyonix TRM

I’ve spoken to John Ballance about the TRM and he’s going to see what can be done about making it publicly available, if at all possible.

It think we just need Andrew R. to give the nod as ROD hold the Castle copyright. John’s already told me has no objections, which I forwarded on to Andrew and asked if he would reply in this thread.

@Mike
I don’t have Iyonix anymore and I don’t need this interface anymore, so I can give it to you. I’m still looking for the software.
I’m keeping it in case you need it.
Good luck.

Could you post a photo of that interface, is it a generic JTAG board we could purchase online?

With regard to the software, it was suggested I ask Rob Sprowson and Ben Avison – so if either are reading this?

It’s exactly the one on this link:

I’m keeping it in case you need it.
Good luck.

Thank you Jean-Michel. If you don’t need it any more then great, I’ll take it off your hands. As I said, I’m not at that point yet so once you find the software let me know and we can organise things.

I’ve removed and fitted new 220uF caps, just waiting on a 470 and I’ll fire it up and see where I am.

I remember changing capacitors, especially those that had “swelling” (gonflement),not flat, on the top.

Another problem was the 5V voltage on the board, to be checked and adjusted (5.1V on IC).
I didn’t understand if your Iyonix started and froze or if it was after a certain time of use?
RAM memory can also be a source of problems.
Good luck.

remember changing capacitors, especially those that had “swelling” (gonflement),not flat, on the top.

This was a massive problem in the early 2000s on lots of electronic equipment.

“According to the source, a scientist stole the formula for an electrolyte from his employer in Japan and began using it himself at the Chinese branch of a Taiwanese electrolyte manufacturer. He or his colleagues then sold the formula to an electrolyte maker in Taiwan, which began producing it for Taiwanese and possibly other capacitor firms. Unfortunately, the formula as sold was incomplete.

“It didn’t have the right additives,” says Dennis Zogbi, publisher of Passive Component Industry magazine (Cary, N.C.), which broke the story last fall. According to Zogbi’s sources, the capacitors made from the formula become unstable when charged, generating hydrogen gas, bursting, and letting the electrolyte leak onto the circuit board. Zogbi cites tests by Japanese manufacturers that indicate the capacitor’s lifetimes are half or less of the 4000 hours of continuous ripple current they are rated for."

Effects stuff from around 2002-200x ?

Ralph

indicate the capacitor’s lifetimes are half or less of the 4000 hours of continuous ripple current they are rated for

Only four thousand? There’s more than twice that in a year…

This was a massive problem in the early 2000s on lots of electronic equipment.

I’m always a little dubious about this statement, because it often seems to be made about equipment that’s well past any sane lifetime for electrolytic capacitors. There almost certainly were dodgy e-caps out there (and there almost certainly still are), but the e-caps on an Iyo’s motherboard and in its PSU are now almost certainly more than a decade past their design life. Even if they’re not abused electrically, the seals wear out and the electrolyte dries up after 20 years…

Only four thousand? There’s more than twice that in a year…

Yes. Welcome to electronics.

E-caps are rated for a given lifetime at a specified ripple current and specified (maximum) ambient temperature. Often 1,000 hours, but 2,000, 4,000, 5,000 and 10,000 are more common now on the high-end ones. To get a “useful” life out of them, the designer will de-rate both the ripple current flowing in them and the ambient temperature around them¹; this in turn allows the basic lifetime to be multiplied up by calculated amounts.

Which is why electronics will invariably have a “design life” which sounds unreasonably short to a layman. PSUs are a good example, because the e-caps on the output stages see a lot of ripple current as they turn the square wave coming out of the transformer into the nice flat DC that your motherboard expects. In general, the designer will decide (or be told by the product manager) what the life of the PSU needs to be, and will then select the capacitors and other components needed to make that happen. For industrial stuff, up to 20 years is feasible as the customer will often pay for not having to replace things; for a consumer PSU or motherboard it’s usually around 5 years² as consumers don’t like the kinds of prices that longer lives will cost.

Oh, and the bigger caps usually have longer rated lifetimes, even within different values in the same range. Which is a bit of a bugger as we’re increasingly miniaturising stuff (again, for the consumer market; with industrial, there’s usually a bit more breathing space if it leads to better reliability). Phone chargers, laptop PSUs and those plug-sized PSUs always amuse me, as there must be a trade-off somewhere in the design…

¹ So in an ATX PSU, for example, one might select caps with a rated ripple of twice that seen in practice at the worst case of loading, and ensure that the caps are sat right in the airflow of the fan so that they’re kept nice and cool.

² Unless the warranty says more, of course. If you buy a high-end “gaming” PSU for a PC, they often have 7-10 years of warranty. On the other hand, the price reflects that.