Hey there,
we have a VR Phantom Miro320S that stopped working a few weeks back.
Unfortunately the camera is out of warranty and so VR only could offer us to RMA the camera for an amount of money, that we don`t wanna spend on it anymore.
So i was asked to take a look at it and even if i am not an electrician or have any expertise on that field, i at least wanted to try my best to get the camera back to work.
This is my little story of what i have achieved so far, hoping that with the knowledge of someone here, i can take it even further:
Basically the camera consists of two main PCBs sandwiched together.
The mainboard is a PCB with a RISC PowerPC 400 series CPU, a Silicon Image storage controller and various other components. (see PCB1: https://ibb.co/hyDmPfr)
The second board, that is attached to the mainboard holds an Xilinx Vertex5 FPGA and 3 SO-DIMM slots. (see PCB2: https://ibb.co/6Wk517m)
(To give a a little bit of background for everyone who isn`t familar with the camera: The Phantom saves high-speed shoots to its internal RAM and if the user decides to keep the shot, copies it over to an SSD.)
As you can see in picture PCB1, i encircled an area around J1. This is where a small daughter board will be installed, which contains a 29-pin connector the CineSSD will eventually attach to, when put inside the camera. (see PCB3_front: https://ibb.co/fn87SdR)
(see PCB3_back: https://ibb.co/bzN4QZ5)
Whenever PCB3 is attached and i try to start the camera, the fan starts to spin at high speed but i get no signal from the camera whatsoever. The ethernet connection doesn`t work either, there is basically no life-sign from the camera and no LEDs are flashing.
As soon as i remove PCB3 from the mainboard, put everything back together and start the camera again, the camera boots properly, LEDs are flashing and i get a signal via SDI. The ethernet connection works fine as well.
When PCB3 is attached and i use an infrared thermometer, i could find a hotspot right underneath the spot where the silicon image controller sits, that heats up to way above 80°C quickly. (see HotSpot: https://ibb.co/ZTQ0Chf)
So it might be the case that the small PCB with the 29-pin connector is causing a short to ground somewhere in the circuit, which leads to the problems i described earlier. but course thats just me giving an assumption.
It might very well be the case that the short is caused on the mainboard itself. (where the silicon image Storage controller resides) or its caused by something else entirely.
VR is not able (or willing rather) to send me a replacement of the small daughter board, even though it has its own part number. It would be certainly worth a try but that leaves me without many options unfortunately.
Maybe - even if unlikely - someone is reading this, who knows more around the Phantom camera or is a capable electrician who might have a good idea of what i could do to at least confirm my suspicion that the small PCB is causing this issue.
Thank you in advance for any helpful replies you might have.
we have a VR Phantom Miro320S that stopped working a few weeks back.
Unfortunately the camera is out of warranty and so VR only could offer us to RMA the camera for an amount of money, that we don`t wanna spend on it anymore.
So i was asked to take a look at it and even if i am not an electrician or have any expertise on that field, i at least wanted to try my best to get the camera back to work.
This is my little story of what i have achieved so far, hoping that with the knowledge of someone here, i can take it even further:
Basically the camera consists of two main PCBs sandwiched together.
The mainboard is a PCB with a RISC PowerPC 400 series CPU, a Silicon Image storage controller and various other components. (see PCB1: https://ibb.co/hyDmPfr)
The second board, that is attached to the mainboard holds an Xilinx Vertex5 FPGA and 3 SO-DIMM slots. (see PCB2: https://ibb.co/6Wk517m)
(To give a a little bit of background for everyone who isn`t familar with the camera: The Phantom saves high-speed shoots to its internal RAM and if the user decides to keep the shot, copies it over to an SSD.)
As you can see in picture PCB1, i encircled an area around J1. This is where a small daughter board will be installed, which contains a 29-pin connector the CineSSD will eventually attach to, when put inside the camera. (see PCB3_front: https://ibb.co/fn87SdR)
(see PCB3_back: https://ibb.co/bzN4QZ5)
Whenever PCB3 is attached and i try to start the camera, the fan starts to spin at high speed but i get no signal from the camera whatsoever. The ethernet connection doesn`t work either, there is basically no life-sign from the camera and no LEDs are flashing.
As soon as i remove PCB3 from the mainboard, put everything back together and start the camera again, the camera boots properly, LEDs are flashing and i get a signal via SDI. The ethernet connection works fine as well.
When PCB3 is attached and i use an infrared thermometer, i could find a hotspot right underneath the spot where the silicon image controller sits, that heats up to way above 80°C quickly. (see HotSpot: https://ibb.co/ZTQ0Chf)
So it might be the case that the small PCB with the 29-pin connector is causing a short to ground somewhere in the circuit, which leads to the problems i described earlier. but course thats just me giving an assumption.
It might very well be the case that the short is caused on the mainboard itself. (where the silicon image Storage controller resides) or its caused by something else entirely.
VR is not able (or willing rather) to send me a replacement of the small daughter board, even though it has its own part number. It would be certainly worth a try but that leaves me without many options unfortunately.
Maybe - even if unlikely - someone is reading this, who knows more around the Phantom camera or is a capable electrician who might have a good idea of what i could do to at least confirm my suspicion that the small PCB is causing this issue.
Thank you in advance for any helpful replies you might have.
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