http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ead-all-fasttech-posts-1206.html#post11277067
WarHawk-AVG;11277067 said:Well crud!
Got my first dud from FT...but I think I figured out why
Ok, by looking at those images you might not see the problem, someone who knows soldering and PCB's can tell you pretty quick
I didn't notice the defect at first, until the unit quit working and I smelled the all to familiar burnt electronics
In image A, you can see the well defined traces, light color green lines on the dark board, if you look on the board the traces all stop a few hundredths of a millimeter before it reaches the sides of the board. All the solder joint are clean and well within that "safety space" all except one...look at the position of that big ole blob of solder at the 5 o'clock position (6 o'clockish in image B), all the way up on the edge passing the safety gap. this is how I think it died....the unit sits a bit not flat in the tube due to the spring loaded ground pin, push it down as the battery spring pushed it back up it will tilt towards that pin pulling that solder joint away from the wall of the tube...bump the battery and release the slack in the ground pin it will then level itself out, pushing that solder joint up on the metal tube...if you hit fire..bzzzzt
Ever wonder why the original kick had that funky weird clear heat shrink around it now?
If you get a kick from FT...check ALL the solder joints to make sure they don't pass the safety ring...and/or when I get my new one...I will take some clear nail polish and conformal coat any solder joints near the edges to ensure they DON'T short out and kill my kick
I have a ticket in...lets hope I get good customer service, this is my first "bad" experience with FT...and I have 9 orders with them and everything I have gotten from them has been fine for inexpensive chinese clone wholesale, so don't take this writeup as a ding on FT...yet
