PXI-4110 Long-Term Fuse Reliability Recall

[Franco]

I home someone here can provide the info I am looking for. This past October I had a PXI-4110 Triple Output Supply go belly up. It would not pass self-test at all. Appeared to have no communication. After a $530 RMA repair, the board was fine. Today, I have 3 more of the exact same card (all purchased at the same time and only a short time out of warranty). All show the same error as the one in October. All failed in one day (today) with error number -200175. Speaking to NI I find out that it is most likely a fuse and it needs to be sent in on an RMA. Again at $530 a pop. To replace a fuse. A fuse that is apparently at the heart of a "Long-Term Fuse Reliability Recall" that specifically affects PXI-4110.

Now, at this point it is not even the money, (though it angers me to no end knowing I paid $530 to fix a product with a known defect and that was under recall, but was not informed of it), but the fact that losing the cards for the 10 business days will effectively cost over $50K in lost shippable product.

We have Certified soldering techs who work under a microscope replacing surface mount components all day. We can replace the fuse. My understanding is that the fuse gets "tired" and is replaced with a different one.

I need to know 2 things:

What is the original value of F9 on this card?

What is it replaced with?

I find it hard to believe that NI would not give me the info I need to make a quick repair. We did  not receive any recall letter either. Can anyone help???

[Robert__R]

You can probably tell what value the fuse is by looking at the marking code listed in the datasheet. 

http://www.littelfuse.com/data/en/Data_Sheets/467.pdf

See if you can make out the letter "N" on the fuse.

[Franco]

Yeah, I have found out that it appears to be a Littlefuse, type 0603, 0.5 Amp. Part # 0434.500 (superceded by 0467.500)

I can replace it with the same one, but I would rather replace it with whatever NI is replacing it with.

[Robert__R]

You may want to look closer at F9.  There are 2 values used on the board and it's the other one.

The 438 series will probably replace the 467 series, but there are differences that have to be verified for each board.  I don't know the status for your board.

[Franco]

What do you mean there are two values used on the board? I don't understand. F9 is marked with an "F" which is supposed to be 0.5 amps. Am I missing something? I have purchasing trying to find me some fuses.

It really kills me that I am going through hell just trying to get a straight answer on this from NI. I have verified that F9 is blown. I have measured every other fuse I can find on the board and they are all fine. It is only F9 that is bad.

Could you please provide as much detail as possible so that I can get these systems back on-line?

[Robert__R]

I meant there are a mix of fuse values on the board.  F6,8,9,10 are 2A.  F3,11 are 0.5A.

[Franco]

But F9 is marked with an "F". According to Littlefuse, it is .5A  Are you saying that AFTER the recall replacement it is 2 Amps? Or am I reading it incorrectly?

[Franco]

I just re-verified that F9 is an "F" marking and F8 is an "N" marking

[Steve_B]

Hi Franco,

I believe that the situation regarding being charged your RMA is being resolved as your board was covered under the recall notification that was sent out. The notification was sent out to the company we have on record who purchased the board. The RMA charge would not apply for a unit under recall.

The recommended method for repairing the boards is to send them in to NI for repair. We cannot authorize the modification of our boards and it would void the warranty on the product. When the F9 Fuse blew it is possible that other components could have been damaged and also the action of replacing the fuse would likely change the calibration of the device. When sent back to NI for repair the device would undergo testing and calibration to ensure it meets all specifications.   

We recommend that affected 4110's be sent in for a preventative repair.

[Robert__R]

Ah.  I was looking at the current population, but I found where it was changed.  Because of the long-term failures that fuse (F9) was updated to 2A a while ago.  If you sent it in for repair they would update it to 2A.