The second node hung in the Dremel, bounced off my facemask, shot across the garage and landed behind shelving, lost forever I’m guessing. (grin) I didn’t have the needle-nose vice grips tight enough.
The third node sliced a little easier but didn’t have as much slime on the PCB, the epoxy was difficult to peel off and the IC separated from the PCB. R2 was definitely not soldered (ever!) on the pad furthest from the blue wire.
The fourth node sliced and separated easily on the IC side, but is solid on the other. Maybe the PCB’s de-flux cleaning process isn’t performed thoroughly?
The LED is soldered closer to the PCB (shorter leads or bent tighter radius) than the first batch. I cannot see any adhesive holding the IC to the PCB. A weak part of the assembly is the attaching of the red/grn/blu wires to the PCB and the seal of the boot around the LED. All things considered, the sealing of the “IP68†nodes is head and heels better than the “IP67.†Nodes appear to have cold solder joints, more than any other problem.
Instead of cutting, hacking whacking and slicing, a Dremel buffer wheel and a bit of compound (plastic model polishing compound) will shine the outside of the node making it extremely easy to see the components and solder joints inside the epoxy! Easy though, doesn’t take much to burn it. Seeing the problem and getting to it to fix is two different things. My back hurts too much to do any more today, sorry.
I think I’ll send the 290+ bad “IP67†and “IP68†nodes back to Ray, including the sliced open ones, maybe he’ll swap them out.
joe
