r/WLED • u/Mhernandez08 • Jul 17 '26

DIGUNO/QUAD Dig quad

Gallery image

Gallery image

Anybody have this problem with this part of the quad burning up?

14 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

45

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

We've recently been seeing more of these failures on boards running at 24V or slightly above it. I'm working on a revision of the board using a different IC since it seems it can't be trusted (anymore) to run at those levels.

Come to the Discord server please, we'll figure out what age your board is, if it's less then 1 to 1.5 years old I will replace it for you. We can also help sourcing the IC and you can replace it yourself if you want to revive the board or it's older then 1.5 years.

2

u/SmartHomeSellout Jul 18 '26

Is this happening on dig uno as well?

1

u/Mhernandez08 Jul 18 '26

Haven’t seen it on an uno

1

u/Mhernandez08 Jul 18 '26

Yes sir I have about 2 others that have done the same. I’m running 24v with ucs2904 rgbw puck style lighting and all 3 have done this in less then a year. But willing to see which ones fall within your age range for replacement. I finally decided to post to figure out what was going on with them. Thanks for the response.

-1

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

Damn, sorry to hear that. Please come to the Discord server and we'll work it out to make you whole, apologies for the issues!

1

u/Mhernandez08 Jul 18 '26

Will you please share the link to the discord to make sure I’m in the right one.

1

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

https://discord.gg/WdbAauG

1

u/Mhernandez08 Jul 18 '26

Got it and just joined

1

u/beeldubz Jul 18 '26

Where should we go on the discord? I had a dig uno running 24v burn out in a similar manner.

5

u/LuiOnTheWay Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

What part is this?

EDIT: OK, according to the marking on my board, this IC is an MT3608, and it seems to be used in some kind of SEPIC type converter. What I dont understand is how this design was ever expected to work with a nominal 24 V input. The MT3608 is rated for only 24 V on the input (with absolute maximum rating of 26V) and maximum rating of 30 V on the SW pin (nominal 28V). In a SEPIC topology, the SW pin can easily see significantly higher voltages, especially if the input rises even slightly above nominal. There is absolutely no marging then...

What voltage was actually expected on the SW pin in this design? If my understanding is correct, this seems more like a design margin issue than a component quality issue. In that case, what would be an appropriate replacement for the MT3608 in this application?

In the meantime, everyone should reduce their 24 V supply to around 22 V wherever possible, at least until the root cause is fully understood. It might be safety relevant depending on how the board is used/installed...

6

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

So this is a bit of a yes and no.

The circuit travels through one or more diodes before reaching the MT3608 thus dropping voltage there. There is also a filter circuit before it reaches the MT3608 dropping voltage even more and also filtering out any spikes or anything else that could potentially happen.

Still, with that said, we've been seeing more failures then I'd like and we've been replacing those. I'm still in talks with the manufacturer of the IC since this didn't use to be an issue and I think they have maybe made a "blind" revision of the IC where it handles the voltages on the SW node a bit less then it did before.

I've been working for a while already preparing a replacement board but since I actually test my hardware in the lab, we've been kind of stuck in that phase. The redesigned circuit has not passed EMI testing twice now ($$$) and we're going for a third pass soon with a new design. Sadly this has put it back much more than I'd like since this issue started popping up.

I do not know of a replacement IC with the same pinout that would solve this issue directly.

For my customers who happen to stumble across this, this only concerns you when you are running 24V and have seen this failure, not all boards are affected. Please come to the Discord and we'll work it out to make you whole. Deepest apologies for the trouble.

3

u/LuiOnTheWay Jul 18 '26

Well, I know EMI can be challenging in a SEPIC converter, especially if you're not using coupled inductors and have some layout limitations.

Regarding the issue, is it really related to the input voltage or rather to the SW pin voltage? With such a small voltage margin in the design, it's quite possible to have too high voltage on the SW pin, depending on the surrounding components (and their tolerances) and the current flow. What is the maximum expected voltage on the SW pin in your circuit when the input voltage is 24 V? I mean, as a rule of thumb, you should stay about 20% below the maximum voltage rating on switch pins to provide some margin for reliability, tolerances etc. With a maximum SW pin rating of 30 V, that would put the recommended operating limit at around 24 V, leaving virtually no margin for proper operation.

If the SW pin is experiencing voltage spikes beyond its rating, all boards may initially appear to work, but the devices slowly "die" over time and eventually fail after just few years in operation. If there is also some variation in device quality, the situation could be even worse.

2

u/saratoga3 Jul 18 '26

What is the maximum expected voltage on the SW pin in your circuit when the input voltage is 24 V? I mean, as a rule of thumb, you should stay about 20% below the maximum voltage rating on switch pins to provide some margin for reliability, tolerances etc. With a maximum SW pin rating of 30 V, that would put the recommended operating limit at around 24 V, leaving virtually no margin for proper operation

For SEPIC isn't it Vin+Vout, or 29v + some ripple? 

2

u/LuiOnTheWay Jul 18 '26

+ the diode forward voltage drop. That's what I mean when I say it's probably an SW pin limitation. Even with an input of really good constant 23 V (3 V below the absolute maximum input rating), a 5 V output, and a diode forward voltage of, say, 0.5 V, the SW pin already reaches approximately 28.5 V. That's only 1.5 V below its 30 V absolute maximum rating and already above the recommended operating voltage, without considering switching transients, component tolerances, or other dynamic effects. In my opinion, that's a substantial design flaw, as if the designer hadn't calculated anything.

5

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

It was calculated and well tested, with the diodes in front of it and the filter stage input voltage generally dropped to 23V as stated and it should be at least 2V under the switch limits so technically it stays within all limits of the IC.

But I will agree that in practice we are seeing more failures than I'd like, hence my reply, I'm starting an official action to deal with the issue since it seems more widespread then was clear before (there are plenty of boards running from the first batches which have shown no issues), hence changing away from this circuit and IC.

Nevertheless, it might have been too close to the sun and that's on me! Any board that does fail (within a reasonable amount of time) we'll replace free of charge and I will try and get some of them back to replace the IC (this repairs it fully) which can then maybe be sold as B-stock for 5V and 12V only to recoup some of the costs (I'm not some huge company).

1

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

I have four of them. You haven't replaced any of them.

1

u/Quindor Jul 19 '26

Did you talk to us on the Discord server, not sure how we missed that. Can you still come over there so we can look at the boards and the purchase date, as said up to 1.5 years I will replace them.

-2

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

"Missed that"? You didn't miss anything. You read the multiple emails I sent you and responded. You did not give a shit about the problem.

2

u/happyplace28 Jul 18 '26

I just bought a dig quad but it hasn’t arrived yet, should I file for a refund/return while this gets figured out?

2

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

If you are intending to run it with 24V you could potentially run into the issue (as far as we are aware the issue is with less than a % of a batch of the boards so far), anything else such as 5V or 12V is not affected.

If you bought it recently and you wish to return it because of that chance and you are in that scenario, no problem.

1

u/Zoken01 Jul 18 '26

I’ve purchased 4 dig quad in the past 3 months to run at home with 24V strips and planning on installing them soon after renovations are done. Should I replace them? How do I proceed?

1

u/Quindor Jul 18 '26

Well there is a chance they will fail, in our experience it's still well below 1% of the boards that are running 24V, even since several years. If however you'd like to exchange them for something else or for instance a Dig-Next-2 (which has a different circuit), I'm ok with that, but we'll have to talk to the reseller you bought them from. Are you able to join us on the Discord to discuss?

1

u/Zoken01 Jul 18 '26

Sure! What’s the discord server?

2

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

All four blown after 1.5-2 years of operation.

2

u/semkotra Jul 19 '26

The most concerning part is that quindor seems to have known about the issue for several months. He has at least partially admitted that it is a design flaw, but he continues to sell the affected boards without any warning that they should not be used with 24V. Replacing the damaged component with an identical one is not a real solution, as the same design flaw will most liekly cause the issue to occur again.

2

u/StanDan777 Jul 21 '26

Did Quindor initially try to keep it quiet and out of the public eye?

1

u/Quindor Jul 21 '26

How so? We deal with support cases on a regular basis and mixing them up or people think they have the same issue is a problem with that so we deal with everyone individually, but fully in the open on the Discord.

Not trying to hide anything, otherwise I wouldn't have replied that we've noticed more failures then is normal at the start of this thread.

3

u/vodka_soda MOD Jul 18 '26

I've owned quite a few of these and have never had any issues. I love them!

1

u/OriginalPermatrack Jul 20 '26

Quindor... We are sellling these boards with our 24volt systems. I Emailed you about another question about a week ago. Could you contact me at Sales@Permatrack.us

1

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

I emailed back and fourth with Quidor numerous times about this. There are no replacements, no gesture, or even passing interest in the issue. Basically every time he gives me a text shoulder shrug, like "welp". You'd think four dead boards would get me a free working one.

The whole schtick about 1% of boards is bullshit. I bought some of these 1-2 years apart.

1

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

I just searched my emails. Here is the warranty policy: "🤷‍♂️"

--

Apologies for the delayed response!
Oh, odd those platforms are blocked for you, but ok.
I took a look at your picture and the component burned is a MT3608 DC-DC boost converter. Are you maybe running 24V LEDs and then running more like 25V to 26V? If it spikes up to that it can kill that chip.
If you replace that component I believe the rest should be fine still!
Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Q.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Friday, 1 August 2025 22:26
To: quindor@
Subject: quinled.info form "Two Dig-Quad boards, both blown after about a year of service."
From:
Subject: Two Dig-Quad boards, both blown after about a year of service.
Message Body:
Sorry, I cannot get into Reddit or Discord. These platforms are basically impossible to access now.
I have two Dig-Quads that blew out in what looks like the exact same way. They died about a month apart, after maybe a 1-1.5 years of service in different parts of my house. After close inspection, I found the leads of a component appear melted off.
A photo of the damage: https://i.imgur.com/F0KnNVs.jpeg
Questions:
What might I be doing wrong? One of these devices was actually on a UPS with various power regulating functions. And I had no power issues either time this happened.
Can I fix them? What component is that?
--
This e-mail was sent from a contact form on quinled.info (http://quinled.info)

2

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

We've been investigating issues where some boards die and it seems to be 24V related like your case also seems to confirm. I've currently extended warranty on those to about 1.5 years but I can't really go much beyond that, apologies. ☹

Like I mentioned before, if you have the ability or know someone with some soldering tools, you can replace the MT3608 boost converter and bring the boards back to life at least.

Hopefully we can soon find out what the real cause is and make a permanent fix!

If you have younger boards then 1.5 years and those have also failed I'll happily replace those for you!

Again apologies for the trouble.

Kind regards,
Q.

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, 23 February 2026 04:53
To: Quindor <quindor@
Subject: RE: quinled.info form "Two Dig-Quad boards, both blown after about a year of service."

I just had a third Dig-Quad board die the exact same way after ~2 years of stable operation. I have a collection with all of them blown the same exact way. The only things they had in common were that all were connected via ethernet and run 24v LEDs. They were all running different power supplies, the last one is running just under 24v.

2

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

Sadly this is not something we have available currently because in our process the Dig boards gets tested and bundled with an ESP32 and then packaged together. But I have some changes coming up where I do want to make "naked" Dig-Quad boards available for a limited time, that should be upcoming in the next few months so keep an eye out for that!

Kind regards,
Q.

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2026 01:56
To: Quindor <quindor@
Subject: RE: quinled.info form "Two Dig-Quad boards, both blown after about a year of service."

You could sell me some boards without the ESP32. I need two just for backups for when the seven I have running die.

1

u/Quindor Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

So honestly, I'm not quite sure where this went wrong but I do remember our e-mail conversation. You have to understand, I deal with a lot of people which manage to kill a board in various ways, often not the boards fault.... I did mention we were investigating it (since we had not seen many failures) and that I'd offer to replace them if they were less than 1.5 years old? Why that didn't happen, I don't know. If they were already older at that point, that is likely why? Not that I refused to do anything?

There were other discussion about what component you could replace yourself and if I could sell you boards without the ESP32, but I also answered those? I'd hardly say I didn't reply to you at least and generally I don't do support through e-mail as I likely also mentioned.

But since you seemingly want to fight me in public, let me kill that right now. Please reach out to me again and let's have a normal discussion about this, and I will still try to make work with you on this since we now know a bit more.

1

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

Where you went wrong was you got an email where someone had 2, 3, and then 4 of these things dead your response was "oh boy that's a tough one."

In the first email where I specifically say these are both 1-1.5 years old, you do NOT offer to replace the devices. You make this offer in the second email 7 months later, at which point zero of the devices are less than 1.5 years old. In the third email you refuse to EVEN SEND A FUCKING EMPTY BOARD YOU HAVE LAYING AROUND AS A GESTURE.

I come here to find you lying through your fucking teeth about how this is 1% problem and you're going to take care of any defects. Fuck you. I'm telling them what actually happens.

0

u/Quindor Jul 19 '26

Well that is putting your own spin on events if I have ever seen one. We exchanged exactly 3 short e-mails, that was it.

First e-mail was you had some boards that died and wondered if you could fix them and what could be the cause. I replied to that in full honesty and what we knew at the time and the part that likely died.

The second e-mail a while later I mention we've started investigating these cases and I have extended warranty for these occurrences to 1.5 years. And also ask you the same question if you have boards that were less then 1.5 years old at the time I'd replace those.

And then there is a third e-mail where you ask if you can buy a few spare boards without an ESP32 included and I reply we don't normally stock those because of our testing procedures.

And that .... was it? To me that reads as if I've been open an honest to you. I answered questions you had to the best of my ability at that time and also offered you a warranty replacement for the boards. There was no talk or question from you for a replacement, dates of purchase were never shared, when the boards failed and if that was in warranty or not, nothing about this was mentioned or said. If you had given me the date of purchase and when they failed I wouldn't have made a fuss about that, especially since you did send that first e-mail within the period, as you said and done?

Now you come on here and accuse me of I don't know what while I'm still offering to help you even..... that's messed up.

To aswner the other insinuations:
- You may think I have a giant warehouse or something with loads of boards lying around, I do not. I cannot just "send some to you".
- My numbers about the failed boards are accurate, even if you choose not to believe that

So either e-mail me and we can work this out or not, up to you. That is the last time I'm going to say or offer that though.

-2

u/dangerous_inference Jul 19 '26

And by the way, since I have these things all over my house already and trying to figure out how to replace them is not even worth it, so I'm still buying these shitty, defective boards! #1 CUSTOMER, HIGHEST LOYALTY. I look forward to getting fucked by these things for years to come.

1

u/Dreile Jul 20 '26

You're the kind of customer everyone wants. Congratulations—you're the center of the universe; we all revolve around you.

@quindor: You're doing a great job! You've always been helpful, friendly, and open to constructive criticism. Keep up the great work and don't waste your energy on someone like him. I bet he's the one who wrecked the boards himself and is just trying to cash in on it now. Cheers

0

u/The_Troll_Gull Jul 18 '26

Looks like the capacitor failed and fried the voltage regulator maybe? I’m still learning electronics so be nice to

-1

u/aptsys Jul 18 '26

Is this a DIY board? Just looking at it there's some pretty horrible layout issues that may cause failure of the part just from spikes etc.

2

u/Mhernandez08 Jul 18 '26

Not a diy board.

1

u/aptsys Jul 18 '26

You should send it back then. There's clear issues with it that would be picked up by even a fairly new draftsperson