Capacitors

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Interesting problem.

This week I am having the same issue after 2 years of faultless performance my AP has same problem. Its a RB433ah fitted with an XR5 as my backhaul and another card for the local AP (customers).

The Ros was 5.17, then I tried 5.20, then 5.21 and now back to 5.11.. Still the problem is there, and it does not seem to matter whether it is in 80211 or 80211.
However in my situation, the wlan starts to pass traffic on its own after stalling for around 45 seconds. But still not acceptable when there is phone traffic on the AP.

2 weeks prior it was my gateway router which was rebooting without reason.. Sometimes 3 times a day, sometimes once a day… Tried ALL known good variants of ROS in the 5.xx series, and nothing changed.. Went right back to ros4.17 and still the same.

This RB is under 2 years old!!!

Contacted MT support and all they kept saying was to upgrade to latest ROS and that they couldnt or wouldnt support any earlier ROS versions..

In the end I replaced the RB with a RB1100ah and retired the RB433uah to the office.. On inspection I have found that at least 2 of the Electrolytic capacitors are bulging and will need to be replaced. This RB is not exposed to the Sun but inside a rooftop cabinet.. And I would have expected the Capacitors to have lasted a lot longer than 18 months even with ambient temperatures in the Summer of 35-40 degrees.

Could it now be that the adjacent link/AP as mentioned above is suffering the same fate!! Maybe faulty capacitors can cause the WLAN or Ether interfaces to stall!!

We need high temperature (mil spec) capacitors in these units, I am a lucky one, 1 unit is at ground level and the other only a few metres above ground, but I feel really sorry for those who are having to climb or hire in tower climbers.
Come on MT, I am sure ALL of us would not think twice to pay 5 euros more for mil spec components if at the end of the day it saves us hundreds of euros.

2

There have been TONS of mikrotiks with bad capacitors. I’ve replaced several myself.

This has been discussed and argued here in more than numereous threads.

Mikrotik is going to use what they consider to be the proper components at the time, and there is nothing we can do other than replace them if they fail.

I think in some of the very newest devices, they are using better capacitors… but there are still thousands of these older units installed throughout the world that are going to fail.

3

Contact your reseller for new ones. Replace the faulty ones and it’s up and running again.

4

thanks guys, bought caps yesterday from diyaudio.es, arrived this afternoon, fitted and rb433uah functions again.

5

Mikrotik needs to man up and replace these boards for people. We have had dozens of these over the last several years that we end up replacing caps on. IMO MT needs to have some sort of replacement program for this problem. Yeah some of the boards may be out of warranty but this problem has been acknowledged by MT yet they don’t do anything to repair/replace these.

6

The warranty is just that, the warranty. If it is under warranty, they will fix it. If it is past warranty, they won’t. You know the terms of the warranty when you purchase. There are lots of products that go bad after the warranty period, that is pretty standard.

Mikrotik has taken steps to prevent this in future products.

7

EU directive in question is 1999/44/EC


This is how I see it!!!

“There is a window of two years from delivery of a consumer product during which the consumer may claim that the product was defective at the time of delivery. Although this period is often misinterpreted as a mandatory two-year warranty period, it is not the case. For example, if a product was purchased with an undetectable defect but that defect became apparent after a few months, then the consumer would have a claim against the seller under EU Directive 1999/44 to repair the defect. If, however, the product was purchased without defects but began to demonstrate reduced functionality after a reasonable period of wear and tear during the first two years (such as a battery that begins to lose its charge capacity over time), the consumer would not have a claim against the seller under EU 1999/44.”

As I understand you have standard consumer rights against the retailer, and some retailers are now adopting the “2 year” DIRECTIVE

But it should be remembered that the directive is “as it says it is” and not a law.

The directive applies to the manufacturers, however there are loopholes in the directive, suggesting that the defect must be apparent within a few months, and that when the defect is found, that the manufacturer is notified of the defect through the appropriate channels. Once done, if the defect should go on to render the product faulty within the same 2 years, then it should be repaired/replaced.

Accordingly, Mikrotik is in Latvia, and Latvia are in the EU. So the directive applies.

To enforce the directive correctly, would mean that we would have to inspect our routerboards soon after installed to check for defective capacitors.

However, I am sure that it could be argued that MT by their own admission ( through the forum) are aware of the defective batch of capacitors and this would over ride the prior condition.

That said, whilst irritating it was, I effected my own repair within 24 hours, buying sufficient capacitors to “swop out” 5 RB433 routerboards if necessary.. Materials including post and packing under 10 euros! and it still wouldn’t stop me from buying Mikrotik.

8

Dell was in trouble a couple of years because of bad quality caps, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html?pagewanted=all