Espruino JavaScript
Corrosion on new charger point #5464
Replies: 1 comment
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Posted at 2021-12-08 by @gfwilliams Argh - how long have you had the Bangle? There's a note about this on the wiki and Bangle reference: https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2#skin-irritation-warning But basically there's a small voltage (3.3v) across the middle two pins for the debug connector. It's extremely low current (0.0001A) but it seems if the back of the Bangle gets salty (I guess from sweat) it can cause corrosion. It's kind of strange as I've been wearing one of these for better part of a year and never had issues, but I guess it's not desperately warm here and I haven't been wearing it for any strenuous exercise. Will the Bangle still charge ok? If so, please could you put something over the middle two pins? Just a bit of tape, or laquer/nail varnish. It won't affect what you can do with the Bangle at all, but it will totally stop this corrosion. I'd have applied something before sending these out, but unfortunately they were pretty much all out the door before I heard from anyone about the issue. Posted at 2021-12-09 by user136815 Hi Gordon. I got the watch a few weeks ago. It seems to charge ok. Posted at 2021-12-09 by @gfwilliams Ok, great - please could you try covering those two middle pads to stop the situation getting worse? Sorry about the trouble for this - if we'd known this was an issue beforehand we'd have done it before sending them out, but we've only started to hear about the issue pretty recently. Posted at 2021-12-09 by Serj So everyone needs to varnish these contacts? Just in case. Posted at 2021-12-09 by @fanoush
It is SWD debug port, if you are developer building your own native binaries it is handy, if you just write in JS or just use apps you don't need it. Posted at 2021-12-09 by Serj Okay! I will not glue them, let's see what will happen to them in the future :) Posted at 2021-12-11 by Razoxane Hey Gordon, So I wore my Bangle for the first time out today on a bike ride, and I didn't realise about the contacts being so prone to corrosion. What can I do to fix this, or is this something that can be replaced under warranty? Attachments: Posted at 2021-12-11 by Razoxane I've cleaned the contacts up a bit by turning the watch off, then using a cotton tip with isopropyl alcohol to try and remove some of the corrosion on the end 2 contacts. Attachments: Posted at 2021-12-11 by Razoxane Semi-false alarm! It's charging now! Posted at 2021-12-11 by johan_m_o @gfwilliams Maybe a backers update about this would be good... Posted at 2021-12-12 by user136815 As per my link http://forum.espruino.com/conversations/370766/#comment16305638 Posted at 2021-12-13 by @gfwilliams Argh, sorry about this, but I'm glad you're getting somewhere with it. Yes, I'll post an update soon warning people. Hopefully you can clean them up a little more - maybe a mild abrasive like toothpaste, and then make sure you clean it off fully afterwards? So what happens with the contacts is they're wired as follows, left-right in the pic above:
So I guess it's actually doing some kind of electrolysis - maybe even taking copper off the 'shiny' pin and depositing goop on the other pins. So ironically it's actually only the one shiny pin that you'd have to cover up and then everything would be fine. Posted at 2021-12-13 by fanoushs-punching-bag Mine was happening right away, I used nail polish so it doesn't continue. :) Posted at 2021-12-17 by user136815 Just took the watch off after a warm day . This photo is prior to cleaning ( I don't have nail polish yet , hoping to buy today) connecting the charger cable is getting a bit of hit or miss . Going to 3d print a holder to see if it is stable connection as jumps in and out of powering up. 😞. Attachments: Posted at 2021-12-18 by user136815 Cleaned ready for nail polish. Attachments: Posted at 2021-12-18 by user136815 Update . 3d printed the small cradle. (Very nice) . Took about 1 minute of twiddling and got it to start charging . Then stopped then twiddle again and started back up . Question is the nail polish going to help or hinder the charge ?. Attachments: Posted at 2022-01-05 by @gfwilliams Glad you got it sorted! The nail polish on the middle two pins shouldn't really have any effect on charging. Maybe it'll push the other 2 contacts slightly further from the watch but they are all sprung with over 1mm of movement so you should be ok Posted at 2022-01-08 by bzd Just a note on using Sugru for covering the two middle contacts. Posted at 2022-01-08 by johan_m_o Had never heard of sugru before. Interesting material... I've simply cut a small piece of clear gorilla tape that covers the two middle pins. I can't even see it myself unless I look really close. Have been working flawlessly. Posted at 2022-01-08 by HilmarSt Having a closer look at my watch I can see that the gold plating has very small holes, like punched with a needle. Posted at 2022-01-10 by HilmarSt @gfwilliams : Posted at 2022-01-10 by @gfwilliams Please could you post up a picture of your charge pins? I definitely don't see any small holes in the plating of the contacts on any devices here. Sadly I think the issue is more deep seated. As long as there is a voltage there, there is going to be corrosion. Even if the contacts were pure gold all the way through there would still be issues I bet. Posted at 2022-01-10 by HilmarSt Sorry for the alarm, here's the "all-clear signal": Maybe the Silver Conductive Paint can prevent the corrosion anyhow? Posted at 2022-01-11 by @gfwilliams
I'm not sure... Even if it prevents corrosion it could cause some skin irritation. Best bet is to use a sticker or some kind of laquer (like car body touch-up or nail varnish) Posted at 2022-01-11 by Korax Hi guys, Posted at 2022-01-11 by Mark_M May be it is possible to gold-plate the contacts? Like here https://www.instructables.com/Homemade-Gold-plating-Super-Simple-/ Posted at 2022-01-11 by Korax Thanks for the suggestion but I was hoping for something simpler. Like the nail-polish that someone mentioned here. Would that work without doing any damage? I mean not being able to use it for running or generally workout (if sweat makes such damage) kind of degrades the devices usefulness a lot .. From my perspective it is exactly the reason I purchased it. Being able to track my workouts in a privacy-friendly way. Posted at 2022-01-11 by johan_m_o As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I found that the simplest method was to use a small piece of strong tape. Posted at 2022-01-11 by Serj Really need to look for a reliable and easy way to avoid corrosion. I don't want to varnish the contacts, but to glue them with tape is not elegant. Although I think someone can do it neatly and beautifully. As an option: peel off a small circle from the computer mouse, you know, there are several of them on the bottom of the mouse and stick it on the middle contacts of the watch. It is enough to glue one contact. Guys, suggest more ideas, it looks like many will come in handy :) Posted at 2022-01-11 by johan_m_o
I think this turned out pretty ok... Posted at 2022-01-11 by Serj Nice! btw: Posted at 2022-01-11 by Serj wow, i'm not original: Attachments: Posted at 2022-01-11 by diego I don't get how yours is protecting the contacts, @johan_m_o. I used some transparent varnish, but it's easy to remove if I wish to use the contacts in the future, or to apply something else if it doesn't work. Posted at 2022-01-11 by johan_m_o It's just a small piece of gorilla tape over the two middle contacts... Sticks very well, but still quite easy to remove if needed. Posted at 2022-01-11 by diego Ok, call me stupid if I'm missing something, but ain't the contacts still exposed? Posted at 2022-01-11 by johan_m_o The two middle contacts, the ones that matter, are completely covered. Posted at 2022-01-11 by diego Oh, ok, it's a transparent tape! By the photo I thought you carefully made a circle on a black tape for each connector, lol Posted at 2022-01-11 by myownself I thought so too, so thank you for being the one to say it ! ;) Posted at 2022-01-12 by @gfwilliams @serj wow, very interesting about the LG watch. 2014 though - I'd have hoped that SMA might have learnt from that :( Transparent tape definitely seems the way to go if you can find something that sticks well. I'm currently trying to source some appropriately-sized stickers that I can pre-apply to the next batch of watches. Posted at 2022-01-12 by HilmarSt Are these actually gold layered copper contacts or slices of brass rod? Attachments: Posted at 2022-01-12 by @gfwilliams I think it is gold-plated copper PCB, because it seems possible for the contacts to come off completely. As mentioned in my replies above, I really strongly think that plating with some other substance (like gold) will not solve the underlying problem. About the only way to fix things properly is to insulate the middle two contacts Posted at 2022-01-12 by Mark_M Sorry may be I was not clear. I proposed (additional) gold plating to avoid corrosion on the charger contacts as well. I agree that "data" contacts should be isolated because they are not in use for 99% of users. Posted at 2022-01-20 by user136815 Hi just an update. Have put the varnish on ( cleaned with isopropyl alcohol before) . As can be seen in the photo corrosion seems to be continuing but charging has not yet stopped , starting with a bit of a wiggle 🙂). Where is the atmosphere hole people talk about. I was a bit liberal with the varnish and didn't want to block the hole . Attachments: Posted at 2022-01-21 by pelrun The hole for the barometer is on the top of the watch under the strap pin, so nowhere near the charging connector. Posted at 2022-01-21 by Tx I put some transparent acrylic paint sold als acrylic finish (used for art paintings) on it. On my second watch I used white arcylic paint since it is easier to see if it's still on the watch. If you paint carefully the transparent finish cannot be seen. Posted at 2022-01-21 by diego I've used some transparent varnish, but I think I'll replace with black acrylic paint for the same reason you used white: to be sure that it's there. I think it's holding up, but I'm not sure and I also think I'm getting some corrosion so better safe than sorry. Posted at 2022-06-30 by GRikell Hi All, Also, is the voltage on the two central pins somewhat related to CPU activity? Because after using the watch with an app which I developed, continuously running in the background, it seems that corrosion has kicked up after a day or two. Thanks! Posted at 2022-06-30 by @gfwilliams Hi! Sorry to hear this - this is actually the first I've heard of the tape coming off and we've been shipping with it for 4 months or more now. I'd say lacquer/paint on the middle two contacts is definitely the most long-lived option though. I'd be amazed if that moved. The issue is actually just the SWDIO pin (second from the right - https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2#hardware-swd) which has a something like a 10k pullup resistor to 3.3v on it inside the chip itself, which we can't turn off. It's always there though - CPU activity won't have an effect at all. On a subsequent version I'm looking at having the pins disconnectable in software (and maybe usable as USB + GPIO), but realistically because that means a new board design we're looking at Bangle.js 3 (some way off!) rather than Bangle.js 2.2 :) Posted at 2022-06-30 by GRikell
Ok, this is strange as the tape shifted a bit on the right side, leaving part of the left-central pin (SWDCLK) uncovered. Posted at 2022-06-30 by ingo
on my watch the tape came off already after 2 months, a piece of new tape helped Posted at 2022-06-30 by user140377 The tape on mine came off two or three weeks ago. I then put nail polish on the two middle pins, still good. Posted at 2022-08-23 by youphyun I also confirm the small sticker/tape on the two middle contacts is slowly coming off. Most probably due to cleaning and wearing. Those contacts remain a weak part of the Bangle.js 2 including the weak magnets of the charging cable that just helps a little to keep it in place. I decided to use the silicon cover and apply a bigger piece of electrical tape to cover all 4 contacts that I can easily replace if needed at every charge. Posted at 2022-08-23 by Serj My way: I took 2 adhesive tapes (one is denser and more sticky, the second is small and transparent), then I cut out a small patch and sealed the middle contacts with the denser tape, then I pasted a patch of transparent tape over it. Cheap, good hold, easy to remove. Not felt by hand. The transparent tape is bent a little from above and glued with the sticky side to the sticky one, forming a small grip for easy removal and re-gluing. Posted at 2022-09-15 by FerGonSid I bought it on May 20 and it's not charging anymore. Is there any way to fix this issue? Attachments: Posted at 2022-09-16 by user140377 Looks like your tape wandered from the two middle pins and now covers one of the charger pins. The black tape should be on the two middle pins, as seen in the other pictures here. Posted at 2022-09-16 by FerGonSid Yes, I removed the tape and it's charging correctly. Thanks for the tip. Posted at 2022-09-17 by Subtlewolf Mine came off within days. Aggressive sweat is the likely cause in my case. Masking tape is doing the job for now but I'm considering superglue or something for long term. Posted at 2022-09-21 by @gfwilliams Glad that fixed it. I'm amazed it slipped that far though! Sorry to hear yours disappeared so quickly Subtlewolf - usually it's a bit better than that! I think to make 100% sure it stays, applying some nail polish/touchup paint to those middle two pins is probably the best solution (in fact it's only the 3rd pin from the left you really have to worry about). Posted at 2022-12-02 by Tx So I'm affected now, too :-( I have a kickstarter Bangle and I covered the middle pins with arcylic varnish. However the charger contacts seemed to puncture the varnish and the watch is in a loading-not loading-loading cycle - most time not loading anymore. The strange thing is that the only obviously corroded pin is the middle left one. The others seem to be ok. Any idea on how to get it back to work again? Edit: vaRnish of course, vanish would be also nice :-) Posted at 2022-12-02 by @gfwilliams
Do you have a video? If it's doing that I'd imagine it is totally unrelated to the SWD pins. It could be that the external flash memory has got corrupted. Which firmware version are you on? I know there were issues in 2v15 but I'm pretty sure they got fixed on 2v16 Posted at 2022-12-02 by Tx The watch works, but charging results in either not-charging or waht seems to be a loose contact. Attachments: Posted at 2022-12-02 by @gfwilliams The connectors don't look that bat - I'd imagine just carefully cleaning the outer contacts would fix the charging issue you are seeing (although I'd be careful not to scratch them). I could really do with some kind of video of what the boot loop looks like... Does it ever exit the blocky bootloader text? Does is display the Bangle.js logo? But either way I'm certain it's not the charging pins that are at fault here with your boot loop - the CPU is obviously working because it's getting to show bits of the bootloader screen, it's probably a software error Posted at 2022-12-09 by glemco Hello all, my tape got out too (and it has been moving for a while), I was considering some more permanent solution like instant glue on the two pins. Posted at 2022-12-11 by @halemmerich I have tried several kinds of tape (kapton tape, generic electric tape, 3M clear waterproof repair tape), but the best so far is generic clear document film (known in Germany under the tesafilm moniker). I use a strip about 5mm wide to cover both middle contacts and to give it some area to cling to it is quite long. Starting directly at the ridge of the heart sensor to have no easy starting point for it to peel off and extending over the two contacts to the next ridge in the bangle case under the strap. Close to perfect since a few months and very easy and cheap to replace if it should fail. Tried nail polish and acrylic paint as well with very mediocre results. Be careful how you clean the watch before applying tape or paint, the ABS plastic really does not like acetone as found in some nail polish removers. Posted at 2022-12-12 by @gfwilliams It's a tricky one - I think paint should be a pretty long-term solution. For instance if it's car touch-up paint then paint thinners should get rid of it, and the Bangle's ABS plastic will be fine with that. As @halemmerich says, Acetone/nail varnish remover will attack the plastic though. Tape is definitely a quick, very nondestructive fix though, and is easy to replace if it does come loose. Posted at 2022-12-12 by glemco Well, thanks, I'll keep the tape then! Don't want to mess up with the watch |
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Posted at 2021-12-08 by user136815
Hi just noticed gunk on the charger points of my watch(pic1) .
Has not been near water ( I'm very careful) or any bad things . When I rubbed it with my finger bits of the copper seemed to of come off (pic 2)
Is it ok and what could be causing it ? https://ibb.co/DMvqNZg
https://ibb.co/XCJ8k5k
Think I did right for pictures.
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