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Red LED dead
The Red LED in one of my BlinkMs (newest one) appears to have died... green and blue LEDs still work fine and the processor is still working as normal...
What's the easiest way to get a replacement? I live in the UK unfortunately...
What's the easiest way to get a replacement? I live in the UK unfortunately...
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?Hi, You can perhaps get a replacement from the vendor you bought it from. Otherwise, you can do an exchange directly with us. BlinkMs travel through the normal air mail pretty easily. Contact us with your shipping address at blinkm at thingm.com and we'll arrange a swap.
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Inappropriate?My RED LED went today. I have inspected the LED for signs of a bad solder or something loose, not the case. I will contact the store I purchased it from for a replacement.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?Alex,
If you can't arrange a replacement from the vendor you got your BlinkM from, email us at blinkm at thingm.com and we'll arrange an exchange.1 Comment
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This solves the problem
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Thanks Tod. Ill contact Little Bird Electronics and arrange a replacement. -
Inappropriate?Thanks Tod, I may do that soon... not having much luck yet contacting Tinker It
Any idea if this is a common problem and/or why it's just the Red LED in this case? Very odd I thought!
I’m confident
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Inappropriate?Hi Tag,
It's not common, but it seems like this last batch of BlinkMs has had a few LEDs that passed testing but then subsequently died. We've asked are manufacturer to change their testing process to try to detect this. -
Inappropriate?One of our batch of BlinkM's had a green LED die after a few minutes of use... We have also completely lost two additional BlinkM's. We're trying to be careful with power regulation, but even so, they seem to be extraordinarily delicate... -
Inappropriate?Hi Cassiel,
BlinkMs are as delicate as any other static-sensitive and voltage-sensitive component. Like all these devices, they are especially sensitive to reverse-voltage (hooking power up to it backwards) and over-voltage (sending more than 5.5 volts) to it.
How have you been powering the BlinkMs?
If you feel the BlinkMs are failing under normal conditions, contact us at blinkm @ thingm.com and we'll arrange some replacements for you. -
Inappropriate?We're currently powering the BlinkMs from the regulated 5V on the Arduino Mega. It's possible we over-voltaged one (we were also pulling in a second regulated 5V from elsewhere to power some other kit) but losing two or three is slightly worrying. We'll try to work out if there's a pattern.
As I said, we had one unit lose its green LED after a few minutes. I currently have another BlinkM that will accept RGB messages but refuses to run scripts...! Am currently investigating... -
Inappropriate?How do you mean they won't play scripts? Do you mean that on power-up they don't play a script? Or that when sent the "Play Script" command the BlinkM doesn't play a script? (e.g. doing a "p1" in BlinkMTester)
If the former, then the BlinkM may have got put in the "don't play script" mode. You can reset this by doing the "B1" command in BlinkMTester or by using this BlinkM_funcs command:
BlinkM_setStartupParams( blinkm_addr, 1, 0,0,10,0);
Or use the BlinkMSequencer to upload any light script.
And let us know if you'd like to do a replacement exchange. -
Inappropriate?Thanks for the reply. The scripting problem appears to be 100% pilot error at this end - I messed up and duplicated part of the command syntax I'm using between host and Arduino. (Memo to self: "play script" is not the same as "cut power.")
I'm still finding fade time setup to be a little unpredictable - two BlinkMs fresh out of the box apparently fade at different times, and response to setFadeSpeed seems sporadic - but that's probably an initialisation issue I need to fix here...
Thanks again.
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