Sure Signal V3 with no lights on

[cjcharles]

Hi all,

My sure signal seems to have given up the ghost as I cannot get any lights to appear on it. I came home one day to notice that I had no mobile phone signal and got no lights at all from sure signal. No amount of disconnecting power/ethernet or holding the reset button (multiple different times of up to 30s) is making a light appear. (and the unit is cold unlike its normal warm operating mode!).

Is there anything else I can do to bring it back to life? I dont think it is very impressive as its about 2.5 years old and whilst I accept a 12m warranty, I cant think of a single other product in my house that has only lasted 2.5 years (especially given it just sits in one place and doesnt get touched).

Thanks,

Chris

EDIT: Serial is 40130441104

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

If nothing in the My-sure-signal-has-stopped-working-what-should-I-do. help page does not work then it could be faulty. 

The Sure Signal comes with a 24 Month Warranty.  

[Retired-Beau]

@cjcharles

Can you take a look at our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread, and then post back your results if you’re not directed to an existing thread?

[cjcharles]

There was nothing in there that was relevant or useful sadly. It seems like it was dead. Your sales team is only able to offer me a new Sure Signal at market price (or by increasing my monthly tariff). I think it is ludicrous that I have to pay again for a device that gives me signal in my own house to stay with Vodafone (after the first one broke after ~3 years from new - which is a SHORT lifetime for any technology).

So frustrating!

[andyfras]

The inferior capacitors used inside the Sure Signal often fail just outside warranty. As I am a professionaI electronics engineer, I managed to repair mine, but several components were damaged.

See: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/Sure-Signal-No-power-light-No-lights-at-all/m-p/...

[cjcharles]

Thanks for that, I did have a look after seeing the blown capacitors online but there were no dodgy signs inside mine and all the large power components seemed to be working (fuse, capacitors, coil), though quite rapidly the components became quite small and I didn't know how to check them (I'm supposed to be an electronic engineer but haven't done anything with circuit design for many many years!)

[andyfras]

The 400V capacitor showed no visible signs of failure until I removed it. Then I saw that the electrolyte had leaked and corroded the leads until it was no longer connected. This then led to the switching chip blowing its top off and a string of other component failures.

[cjcharles]

Thanks for that, what tools do you use other than a multimeter and do you just google the part numbers for the components you find to work out what they do? Might give it a go, but sadly not a single component showing any signs of failure.

[andyfras]

Sorry for the late reply. The switching chip had literally exploded, so that was very obvious. There was a sooty deposit on the circuit board. The damage to the capacitor was only visible once I had removed it.  I used a multimeter to check the fuse, bridge-rectifier and other components.

Fortunately, I already had the components as I had repaired several Homeplugs, which use the same power supply (and had failed in a similar way).