Hello,

I have recurring problems with some Routerboards. The problem is that when there's something wrong with the power (like momentary power failure, or even unnoticeable fluctuations), they just become "cold". LEDs don't blink, the device doesn't work. Cold, dead, not responding. Only pulling out power supply for at least 20 seconds or more make them work again.

The problem is with 4 or 5 devices in 3 different sites. There are 433, 433AH, 493 and recently 450 boards with the following power supplies, with or without PoE adapter (depends on customer).

http://www.interprojekt.pl/wiki/Wiki.js ... ZAS-24V-HP
http://www.interprojekt.pl/wiki/Wiki.js ... TB-ZAS-24V

Last year I had problem with nearly 10 RB1000s where I had to replace one of the capacitors on the mainboard (because of design bug) to fix the problem.

Does anyone know of the same here? I desperately need help, customers are going crazy when the new, shiny, so-much-advertised devices just behave worse than plain old TP-Link... (Yeah, the most important feature for them is to have router that don't mysteriously pass away).

Do you think they are simply broken and need to be replaced? Some of them has only 6 months or less...

Thanks.

Is usage of UPS forbidden in Poland?

Is usage of UPS forbidden in Poland?

I'm looking for an advice, not trolling.

Specially for those retarted in the submarine - TRY USING AN UPS!!!!!

And what if I already use UPS in most of those places?
One RB433AH is behind 20kVA EATON 9155 looking more like big refrigerator than UPS. And it doesn't prevent it from exhibiting random shutdowns. And this is the only device in this site which behaves like that (I've got there more than 20 servers, some FC arrays, and even 3 more Routerboards - 2xRB1000 plus one other RB433AH).

Mikrotik hardware gurus - help!

Wait, even better solution, connect the powersupply before a 20kW HVAC drive! You will NEVER have problems with that board again

Wait, even better solution, connect the powersupply before a 20kW HVAC drive! You will NEVER have problems with that board again

Thanks too for this extremely useful comment.
The other one, fresh RB450 is in private house, protected by a small UPS. What did I do wrong this time?

As we now established your brain capacity - EVERYTHING!

Go and bother some other forum.

As we now established your brain capacity - EVERYTHING!

Normis please close this account as soon as possible, I'm not quite sure I'm discussing with human.
Thanks in advance.

Hi,

If you are looking for really good power supplies try these ones:
http://zasilaczeonline.pl/
For poorly designed/manufactured power supplies life span of 6 months is possible.
Did you ever considered buffered power supply used mostly in alarm and CCTV systems?
It's like 2-in-1 solution (UPS + power supply), output voltage pulsation is really small (30 mV p-p)
and switching time is 0 ms
There is link to manufacturer website:
http://www.pulsarsc.com.pl/pl/panel.php ... &m1=1&m2=2
Hope this helps.

Regards, Grzegorz.

Thanks Grzegorz, I have never considered power supply to be a problem here, I'm gonna replace some of them and see what happens. Luckily (or not?) one of the RB433AH hangs almost every other day, so the difference will be observable immediately.

If the power supply fix these problems, I'm gonna blame MT -- it'd be their power supply that is unstable and fails
I'll give you feedback after buying one of the suggested supplies.
I'll also look into these buffered things -- although I suspect I can't use them in these scenarios.

Thanks very much.

Hi,

I forgot one thing which is also important, use surge protectors whenever possible.
I saw a lot of devices destroyed by voltage spikes, especialy when electric engines are used in neigborhood.
Thanks for karma

Regards, Grzegorz.

Assuming that your electricity is about as bad as ours...

This is what we do.

We install primary surge protectors between the electricity meter and the main switch.
Something like this http://www.transtector.com/productdetai ... 1101-826-1

We then install secondary surge protectors on the load side of the MCB (circuit breaker).
Something like this http://www.transtector.com/productdetail?item=1101-1021

This is enough - except if you get a direct lightning strike. Then nothing helps.

However, if we make use of a "multi plug", we always install the ones that have built in surge protection.

What might help is to splice in a capacitor on the DC side of the power supply (spliced in-line onto the DC wires of the cable itself). If you are worried about voiding the warranty of your power supplies (understandable), you can buy short male-female 2.1/2.5mm cable adapters and splice in a cap on that. Maybe a minimum of 33,000uf - 47,000uf might be enough (?), but make sure the voltage rating is higher than the power supply's voltage output.

...
Last year I had problem with nearly 10 RB1000s where I had to replace one of the capacitors on the mainboard (because of design bug) to fix the problem.
...

Any chance you can provide further detail about which cap and what value you replaced? I've got a RB1000 that will crash randomly between 7 and 30 days. Does not appear to be a traffic or load issue, and does exactly what you describe - goes cold and needs to be off for 10-20 seconds to come back up...no ip, no console, and of course no supout

What might help is to splice in a capacitor on the DC side of the power supply (spliced in-line onto the DC wires of the cable itself). If you are worried about voiding the warranty of your power supplies (understandable), you can buy short male-female 2.1/2.5mm cable adapters and splice in a cap on that. Maybe a minimum of 33,000uf - 47,000uf might be enough (?), but make sure the voltage rating is higher than the power supply's voltage output.

Thanks I'll try that. I'm not skilled in electronics so I'm little woried that this capacitor will explode a second after connecting to the power supply Is this as simple as connecting + of the capacitor to the + wire and the same with - ?
Do you mean 33 THOUSANDS of micro-farads?

...
Last year I had problem with nearly 10 RB1000s where I had to replace one of the capacitors on the mainboard (because of design bug) to fix the problem.
...

Any chance you can provide further detail about which cap and what value you replaced? I've got a RB1000 that will crash randomly between 7 and 30 days. Does not appear to be a traffic or load issue, and does exactly what you describe - goes cold and needs to be off for 10-20 seconds to come back up...no ip, no console, and of course no supout

It affected only the old versions of RB1000, you can preferrably send affected devices to RMA or fix them yourselves (possibly losing warranty) by changing C309 to 0.1uF 0402 capacitor. Beware this capacitor is really very small in size
Hope this helps.

Thanks I'll try that. I'm not skilled in electronics so I'm little woried that this capacitor will explode a second after connecting to the power supply Is this as simple as connecting + of the capacitor to the + wire and the same with - ?

Yes, + to + wire and - to - wire on the DC side of the power supply. Make sure you don't get a bipolar/non-polar cap as there is no +/- on these. Regular DC caps have a mark on one side with several "-" to show the negative lead (you'll see this on the bigger caps of your RB1000 for example). Again, make sure the voltage is higher than the voltage of the power supply. It's okay to use a 30V cap on a 12V power supply. Depending on the DC voltage you are using, the higher uf rated caps may be harder to find or more expensive. You can add additional caps in parallel (- to -, + to +) to increase the capacitance, so 2 of the 33,000uf caps in parallel would give you 66,000uf total. You could start with smaller caps (10,000-20,000uf) and add additional ones in parallel until you see a difference to determine the total needed capacitance. Once you find the sweet spot, add 10% more to that value to give you some headroom.

The 33,000uf value I suggested is just a guess, but based on some random things I've done with caps over the years. Having too much (within reason) shouldn't be an issue...just don't install a 1 farad cap

Do you mean 33 THOUSANDS of micro-farads?

33 thousand micro-farads. You might need to go higher or lower, depending on how fast your power supply recovers from a dip on the AC side and how much of a dip. Here's an example of a 33,000 16v cap at mouser.com: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nic ... PaSfAxA%3d

It affected only the old versions of RB1000, you can preferrably send affected devices to RMA or fix them yourselves (possibly losing warranty) by changing C309 to 0.1uF 0402 capacitor. Beware this capacitor is really very small in size
Hope this helps.

Thank you very much for the info..that thing is tiny! So far I've looked at 2 RB1000s I've got on hand (one is DOA and the other just came back from RMA which was also shipped DOA) and I've noticed that in your pictures there is a cap 301 next to the 309. Neither of my boards have a cap soldered on at 301, so maybe these are the newer boards? Either way, I appreciate the info and will take a look at our problematic RB1000 once I get a backup installed.

(...)
Yes, + to + wire and - to - wire on the DC side of the power supply.
(...)

Thanks for you help, I'll look into that.

I've noticed that in your pictures there is a cap 301 next to the 309. Neither of my boards have a cap soldered on at 301, so maybe these are the newer boards? Either way, I appreciate the info and will take a look at our problematic RB1000 once I get a backup installed.

It's not C301, it's R646 (I understand that resistors are black, and capacitors are bright). You don't want to solder it in.
I replaced C309 in one such board and it's ok. This one was particularly problematic before.
By "ok" I mean 10 months without any single issue on all 10 devices up to this day.

Thanks.