sPod Burned Out

[geoffff]

I was messing around with my door panel where I have an sPOD SourceLT switch panel installed, and I somehow managed to short a switch control wire against the door panel. (The door metal has a nasty jagged cutout for this switch panel.) I didn't notice anything was wrong until my air compressor started switching on and off randomly, and I smelled smoke.

Looks like I thoroughly fried the RJ45 connector where the switch wires go into my sPod, and melted the circuit board around it. It's too complicated for me to fix myself, as it's a multi-layer board. I called sPod and they want me to send my unit in for repair.









It's a little ironic to me that this can happen. I thought the whole point of the sPod was that it allows low-current wired switches to remotely activate high-current appliances! There must have been some significant current going to my switches - in order to burn out the connector like that!

Yes, there's a 2-amp fuse for the whole sPod unit (it didn't blow), but there are no fuses on the control lines to the switches.

This could have cause a fire!

 

[SDDiver5]

Sorry to see this happen but creative place to mount the panel!

 

[geoffff]

Yeah! The sPOD was installed by UJoint in NC. It's cute, but a bit finicky to get that door panel on and off with the switches in there.

 

[chet6.7]

I spilled a small amount of liquid on the touch screen, it ceased to function. They do turn around repairs quickly, of course the shipping isn't cheap.
I would buy something else if I were to do it again.

 

[DaveInDenver]

This is an interesting point about fuse sizing. You say they put in a 2A fuse for the whole panel but the RJ45 is generally only going to be good to 960mA per pair (the highest power over Ethernet spec). You can't fuse it by adding up all 4 pairs because each individual wire could be asked to carry the whole load in a fault such as yours, whether that's because one wire shorted or the failure cascaded burning them out in succession.

Not that it helps you but I bring it up because some people decide to run parallel wire or cables to increase current capacity (say two 4AWG instead of one 2AWG perhaps). Which is fine but you can't fuse the bundle necessarily based on the combination of them. If one crimp fails, for example, the other cable (or cables) now have to carry increased current. So you usually still have to determine fuse on each cable individually.

 

[geoffff]

I spilled a small amount of liquid on the touch screen, it ceased to function. They do turn around repairs quickly, of course the shipping isn't cheap.
I would buy something else if I were to do it again.

Yeah, I'm not super confident about the reliability of this thing, and I really like reliability. At least mine has no touch screen. But I don't need to be able to control (or "strobe") my lights via Bluetooth. I might be happier with a bank of six plain old relays.

Getting in contact with sPod was frustrating (hours/days of waiting on hold or waiting for a callback), but I eventually was able to purchase a replacement circuit board from them. Fingers crossed it'll arrive without mishap.

 

[geoffff]

This is an interesting point about fuse sizing. You say they put in a 2A fuse for the whole panel but the RJ45 is generally only going to be good to 960mA per pair (the highest power over Ethernet spec). You can't fuse it by adding up all 4 pairs because each individual wire could be asked to carry the whole load in a fault such as yours, whether that's because one wire shorted or the failure cascaded burning them out in succession.

Not that it helps you but I bring it up because some people decide to run parallel wire or cables to increase current capacity (say two 4AWG instead of one 2AWG perhaps). Which is fine but you can't fuse the bundle necessarily based on the combination of them. If one crimp fails, for example, the other cable (or cables) now have to carry increased current. So you usually still have to determine fuse on each cable individually.

When I get my replacement circuit board, I will think about how I might measure the max current (without damaging it again). But that could be a bad idea.

My suspicion is that I shorted the "lighting" wire that powers the LED lights on the switches, and maybe (maybe!?!) only that wire carries a lot of current. I might be able to splice in an inline fuse there.

 

[chet6.7]

Yeah, I'm not super confident about the reliability of this thing, and I really like reliability. At least mine has no touch screen. But I don't need to be able to control (or "strobe") my lights via Bluetooth. I might be happier with a bank of six plain old relays.

Getting in contact with sPod was frustrating (hours/days of waiting on hold or waiting for a callback), but I eventually was able to purchase a replacement circuit board from them. Fingers crossed it'll arrive without mishap.

That is what I should have done.
Please keep us updated on what you do.

 

[TwinStick]

Yeah, things that can cause a fire ain't no joke.

You are always better off to err on the side of caution & if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, pay a reputable shop to do it for you.

We almost lost a brand new Toyota 4RUNNER to an electrical fire. It was literally seconds away from ignition. I burned my fingers pretty good because when I went to unplug the fridge, wires were already melted and dripping lava hot plastic. Fingers stuck to the molten plastic and I was getting electrical shock at the same time. I pulled so hard it pulled the wires out of the plug and cut my fingers deep enough to start the blood dripping quite fast. I was just happy I saved the vehicle.

So, the moral of the story is, use at least 10 awg high strand and do not use any store bought 12v plug, unless it is from the fridge manufacturer. I listened to the stupid Toyota salesman who said that stock wiring would easily handle our ARB 50.