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What’s the most dramatic failure of a low‑quality component you’ve seen, and how did you diagnose the root cause, evaluate the impact, and prevent it from happening again? We are asking e14 in our Join, Share & Win Competition

E14Alice

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are doing well!

This month’s question was inspired by one that  sent over, so a big thank you to JWx for the suggestion!

If anyone else has questions or ideas they’d like to see featured in AskE14, please send them my way, and I’ll line them up for the coming months.

Now to the question: 

What’s the most dramatic failure of a low‑quality component you’ve seen, and how did you diagnose the root cause, evaluate the impact, and prevent it from happening again?

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Competition Details 

You'll have to be a member of the element14 Community to join in and take part in this “Join, Share & Win” challenge. It's simple, all you have to do is:

1. You need to make sure you are Register or Login
2. Then answer the following question by adding a reply or commenting!

What’s the most dramatic failure of a low‑quality component you’ve seen, and how did you diagnose the root cause, evaluate the impact, and prevent it from happening again?

3. The Community team will then select the best 3 answers to win a UNO R4 Minima! 

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Closing Date: 30th April 

Winners announced: 1st May

UNO R4 Minima

Terms and Conditions 

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This month's winners

  

  

  

 will be reaching out to you soon to confirm contact details

Parents

  • Maybe it's not fair to say these are cheap components but power ratings for certain power resistors are misleading.  This wasn't for a design per say but I had to create a test load.  Unfortunately the specific details of this adventure are murky but to stay on the safe side I decided to use 4 resistors to make the test load.  If I am not mistaken the power rating of each resistor was 5W. Well once power was applied it didn't take a second before the air was filled with that old familiar smell.  It should be said that the resistors I used were bulky and substantial through hole parts, and although they had considerable size they were still suitable for board mount.  After this fiasco I wasn't going to fool around.  I bought some of those large corn-on-the-cob size ceramic core power resistors and I haven't looked back... they have been my go-to anytime I need a test load.

  • in reply to dang74

    Derating the steady state use to 70% of rated current is half the heat. I try to keep that in mind to avoid burns or forced air cooling. Some resistors do have an instantaneous peak current to consider as well as steady state.

    For testing power supplies and solar panels, I use ceramic resistors 40W in air, 70W on a heat sink. 

  • in reply to robogary

    The ones I picked up, and I admit they are overkill, are technically wirewound... but the large wire is afixed to a ceramic core.  I have a few variants but some are rated for hundreds of watts.  The ones I have are adjustable too.  There is a central adjustable clamp to set resistance.  I can't find the specific models on Newark but the resistors I have are similar to the following...

    canada.newark.com/.../79AJ0992

Reply
  • in reply to robogary

    The ones I picked up, and I admit they are overkill, are technically wirewound... but the large wire is afixed to a ceramic core.  I have a few variants but some are rated for hundreds of watts.  The ones I have are adjustable too.  There is a central adjustable clamp to set resistance.  I can't find the specific models on Newark but the resistors I have are similar to the following...

    canada.newark.com/.../79AJ0992

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