Re: VME Toaster - has anyone else experienced this?

[Korhonen Timo <Timo.Korhonen@psi.ch>]

Hi,

we have had similar incidents with the MAXv's predecessor, the OMS58 
card. In that case the reason was bad design
of that card: a capacitor is placed too close to the card border and its 
5v-side pin touches the ESD (electrostatic discharge)
strip on a VME64x crate (OMS58 is of course not designed for VME64x, but 
even in the old standard this
placement was not acceptable). The card then pulled a lot of current 
from the backplane, eventually burning the pins,
the (P1) connector and the backplane slot.

best regards,

Timo

Gillingham, IJ (Ian) wrote:
> On the night of 30th December 2007, a fire broke out in one of our 
> control system's VME crates. Considerable damage was inflicted on the 
> crate, but fortunately the fire did not spread.  On examination of the 
> crate and VME cards, the P1 connector, to which a "MAXv 8000" card was 
> connected, had been destroyed by heat/flame.  Electrical burning of 
> some components was evident on the MAXv card, these components were 
> well away from the direct heat of the main area of combustion 
> (components close to the fire were of course destroyed).
>
> We are presently trying to ascertain which component caused the 
> failure (the MAXv card, P1 connector or VME backplane).
>
> Has anyone else experienced this type of event, in particular with the 
> MAXv motor control card?
>
>
> Ian Gillingham
> Diamond Light Source
>
>
>        
>
>
> This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential, copyright 
> and or privileged material, and are for the use of the intended 
> addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or an authorised 
> recipient of the addressee please notify us of receipt by returning 
> the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain, distribute or disclose the 
> information in or attached to the e-mail.
> Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the individual 
> and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd.
> Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or any 
> attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept liability for 
> any damage which you may sustain as a result of software viruses which 
> may be transmitted in or with the message.
> Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in 
> England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House, Harwell 
> Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United 
> Kingdom


--
Timo Korhonen  PSI (Paul Scherrer Institut, http://www.psi.ch) 
              CH-5232 Villigen PSI 
              tel + 41- 56 3103262  fax + 41 - 56 310 3383 
e-mail:	       timo.korhonen@psi.ch