OBi200 RJ11 Port failure (corrected title)
FreeServiceForLife:
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
Let's write off your original description as a "RJ11 Jack failure" as an inaccurate name for the actual problem and move on. It's like saying that the power plug on your vacuum cleaner must be bad because the brush roll won't turn, when the real cause is a broken belt.
I have changed the title to reflect I was not referring to the physical jack but to the failure of the normal operation of the jack.
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
Plugging the OBi into a surge protector only protects its AC power adapter from catastrophic power surges (and, if it's a better-quality protector, from some AC line noise). It doesn't do anything beyond that. Many surge protectors are junk, and the MOVs that they use to clamp dangerous power surges can eventually fail over time. If the surge protector is more than 5 years old, and/or is from a hardware/big-box store, it's not going to be as effective as a higher-quality product from APC, Tripplite, or Panamax. Telephone line protection included in surge protectors is very crude, and only blocks major events, not ESD.
My 2nd OBi200 that failed was plugged into a Panamax M4LT-EX which was less that 2 months old. As you stated this is a quality product.
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
Destructive events can happen via the telephone wiring attached to the OBi, or even you touching it and getting zapped.
I agree with this assessment. If an electronic product is going to fail, it will usually fail in the first year. But when a second identical device fails in a different location in the same manner, it makes you ask some questions which has brought me to the forum. There have also been reports of this on Amazon reviews. Interestingly my OBi100 is still ticking without issue while I have 2 failed OBi200s.
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
There are no inherent manufacturing issues with the motherboard.
What about at the component level? Perhaps a bad lot? I'm not the only one reporting this type of failure
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
Here are a list of possible causes of failure, sorted in order from most likely to least likely:
Something plugged into the RJ-11 phone jack conducted a harmful level of power into the SLIC. This includes your attached telephone, any house wiring into which the device is plugged, any physical damage to that wiring, such as a staple or nail in the wall that punctures the wiring, inductive surge passed to the house wiring via parallel wires, ESD striking any of the wiring or any of the devices plugged into the OBi, and, especially, any telephone company or cable company telephone line connection still connected to that house wiring.
ruling this out as the failure happened in 2 separate locations and 2 different infrastructures.
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 05:56:39 pm
Internal component failure; highly unlikely to be the cause, given that you have had two incidents of this.
This is at the top of my list. why you ask? Because that is exactly what happened (OBiHAI even confimed this on the first failure under warranty and replace my OBi200). The SLIC failed because of an "event". The fact that it happened multiple times tells me that there is a higher chance of failure in an OBi200 than in the previous generation. I don't believe in coincidences and I'm very careful with equipment, so I have to believe there is something more to these failures.
Steve thank you very much for your time and constructive feedback. I hope by creating this thread, I can draw some attention to the problem and if anyone at OBiHAI is reading may look into the problem and see if there is anything they can beef up on future versions or see if a bad lot of devices went out (my 2 OBi200s that failed were purchased 2 months apart and potentially in same manufacturing run).
I have enjoyed the OBi products and will continue to use them. Just a little frustrated with this type of component failure when I took precautions to prevent such an event from happening.
Thanks again
Note: After opening up the defective OBi200 case, the PCB indicates 'OBI200 v1.2 2013-01-26' '24623A 29 14'. Again both of the OBI200s I purchased were in the Fall of 2014 so they may be from the same run.
Lavarock7:
Quote from: SteveInWA on September 16, 2016, 02:48:49 pm
RJ-11 jacks don't fail. It is much more likely that there is either a configuration error, or less likely, the circuitry that operates that jack failed. The jack is simply two gold-plated pins. There's nothing to go wrong with the jack.
I take a slight issue with this. I have seen RJ11 and RJ45 female connectors fail, although not often. The pins have gotten stuck between the plastic channels and have not fallen down to touch the male metal parts. A dental tool fixed the problem.
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