How it feels having 3.2M riding on your shoulders (production problem)

[mikeofaustin]

These little computers ( that my company designed), had a great run on the delta units, so we ran another 4k units again (selling price $850). No immediate problem was found, until after I got the first articles out of 'retail' packaging. Immediately I noticed a constant 'lock up' problem. I'd be surfing the net, etc., and it would just lock up. 50 percent of the units were having this problem.

[technical]
Long story short, the contract manufacturer purchased a wrong component. What a great relief off my shoulders because it would have came back to me if it was a design issue. The CM will now have to rework all the units on their dime. If it were my design problem, I would be receiving a LOT of grief. I debugged this for about a week and finally located it. The switching regulator 'top' and 'bottom' fet was overlapping, shorting the supply line and causing a huge ringing on the supply line. All the regulators run off the supply line, so it was a very difficult problem to find.... AND, it only overlapped about once in a 5 minute period. Very hard to debug. Production stopped, retail stopped, invoices stopped.... 3.2 million.

Wew, this calls for a celebration... or at least, we'll watch a movie at work on the computer to make sure the problem is fixed. I'm thinking we'll watch "What's eating gilbert grape" since no-one in my office has seen it. (sometimes, I'll say, "I not sorryyyy"... and they didn't know WHAT I was referring too).

what an absolute relief. Absolute relief!!!

 

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[truckinbutch]

Glad something's working out for you .

 

[mikeofaustin]

So, just after we get that fixed.... I learned of a lawsuit that our company in with another company that tried to steel some IP (intellectual property). And old computer that we designed is the core of this lawsuit, and it worked, but for some reason, it's not working now... so, they give it to me to fix, because I'm the only one that knows how to fix it. I need to fix it within the next week, or we could potentially loose a lawsuit for 10million. No pressure on me. not all all. My life is full of stress right now. Kids banging on the wall, evil neighbors, thugs breaking into cars... It's good I'm on BP meds.

 

[tomjiggy]

Sounds like you have everything going good You'll fix it, not to worry....try to picture it as a game with a time limit...lol. Seriously though, I hope you figure it out soon.

 

[JohnDroid]

Wow Mike, sounds like you have your hands full. Just remember, take a deep breath and tackle one problem at a time. In the grand scheme of things you have your family and your health and everything else will work itself out.