[Spark Core] Killed CC3000 Module (Breathing White)?

Troubleshooting
1

Hi there,

I made a mistake while playing with cables on the breadboard.
I connected 3.3v to 12v of a power supply used for LED-Strips for less than 1 second.

Now the Core is breathing white.
According to post from @dave this is a problem with the CC3000 Wifi Module.

Things i tried:

  • Factory Reset, flashing Tinker, updating and other useless things

  • Deep Update
    After flashing its immediately breathing white again, not orange (starting up wifi module before flashing?)

  • CC3000 update
    It breathes magenta, never returning to yellow

Windows is not recognizing the Spark Core, so there is no serial port. The surface of the CC3000 module is about 51°C hot.
I can still enter DFU mode.

Now i made a small programm with manual system mode (no wifi) and a blinking led and this works fine.
Even Windows offers a serial port now. Wifi Module is still hot.

My conclusion: Wifi Module is damaged.
Is it possible to repair my core?

Thank you,
Dave

PS: Already bought a Photon as replacement which handles HTTP requests A LOT faster, so atm i’m quite happy with my little accident :wink: but i still love my core.

2

Hi @Draagon,

Sorry about the slow reply!

So the 3.3v line on the core comes from the power regulator, and I suspect the core isn’t as tolerant of power surges on 3v3 like it might on the VIN pin. A very hot core could also indicate a failed / burned out power regulator. You can totally buy components and attempt to remove / reflow pieces, but yeah buying a photon as a replacement will definitely be easier. I believe the bill of materials / eagle files are here - https://github.com/spark/core - in case you decide to try a repair!

Also @BDub has assembled some Cores by hand back in the day, so he might be able to help provide some hints on where to start. :slight_smile:

Thanks,
David