Please let me point out something. The circuit board is professionally-made and uses surface mount components. A small business is not likely to have the equipment to make these. It is common practice for a engineer/designer to come up with a design on paper, make experimental models to "stress test" then farm out the final design to a company that has the capability to mass produce. During assembly, things can go wrong. Parts can be cracked, overheated and mispositioned for example. The parts purchased by the assembler may have defects. Now back to the small business. The first batch may work well and last a long time. Then a new batch made fails in a few months. This is when the tough part begins digging through what went wrong. Not unlike Takata Airbags. With the tragic personal loss, the small company may not be able to investigate...I really don't know. Also, these units are sold at low cost and probably little profit.
If you look at the picture of unit that failed unit, I don't seen anything obvious that looks damaged. The output of the regulator is not zero volts but a very low voltage which could mean one or more of the internal circuits of the chip have failed. These are my observations and opinions. What would help is for everyone that has a unit to fail, do a little checking and take pictures before throwing them in the trashcan. I would think the regulator chip can be removed and hand wire a new chip with a small heat sink. See what happens next.
Last edited by Rusty Rod; 07/30/2021 3:53 AM.
