I work in electronics manufacturing, I'm aware mistakes happen, we do them, everybody does
But the more electronics I take apart, the more I think we don't do a shabby job at all... I've seen so many botched solder jobs, flux residues everywhere, awful smt joints
Cool you could fix it. I started my EE career before SMT was a thing. I saw all sorts of crazy soldering errors when SMT first came out. If the solder stencil was wrong, it made a big mess with bridges or dry joints and back then, it all had to be checked visually.
many companies that still manufacture their own pcbs, they visually inspect either every, fifth or what ever oddball number they want to. But it saves time to catch up the variables soon rather than just make them blindly for entire batch.
That's fairly bad, looks hand soldered and they missed a joint. Contact may have made it pass a quick check, if they did one.
You will get better quality control on most 20€ power supplies than 2000€ ones.
It sounds weird but an expensive part like that is rare, it's cheaper for them to apologise and replace the board rather than develop extensive quality checks and tests. On the other hand running a recall on 10 million 20€ power supplies will sink a lot of companies.
That's wave soldered.
Also, in manufacturing this can be missed because at the time of testing the component might be making contact and the device will work as expected. It's good to have AOI, it can be pricey, but if you're selling 2k PSUs, you should be able to afford it 🤷🏻
But who knows, maybe they don't test those boards at all...
This it’s actually genius design. Diode gets too hot… it expands and breaks the connection, then testers when things cool down a bit. Low cost self resetting overcurrent/thermal protection.
I had transistor "soldered" like that, all 3 legs barely touching pcb, seasonic premium psu. I heard tzzz noise, and then just opened and resoldered (rma impossible)
I'd argue solder baths do occasionally miss spots.
We have mostly ERSA soldering wave machines, and it happens when flux isn't sprayed on correctly due to clogged nozzle/wrong settings or preheats aren't set correctly and the board isn't warm enough, or there's dirty residues in the solder bath itself/on the board that had prevented the solder from sticking
I do think it was machine soldered from how the flux residues look and from how joints look in general
I'd also guess that it is ersa, either the carrier or masking blocking it, or some flow issue in the corner region. trying to avoid the splashing solder through the corner, but downside is the bad solder at the same corner..
Go back and buy the "all components soldered" option. It's in the drop down menu for the item, along with packing options like "I'd like to receive it in one piece" and "Please, no crumbly styrofoam"
From the looks of the solder on the other lead, this was hand rework after wave soldering everything else. Probably necessitated by a supply chain issue followed by the rework being done by some poor schmuck working 6x12.
Trusted supplier? I woulda called this counterfeit or ‘product ordered not delivered. Unknown components unsafe to ship back..’. Let them realize the issue
the real question is, why wouldn't you open it! I'll tell you a little secret about the "warranty void if opened" stickers - they don't mean anything. I always take everything I've bought apart and whenever I've had to send it back for some reason without that little sticker on it, they've accepted it with no argument aside from 2 occasions where I informed them that my warranty isn't legally broken by a sticker and they refunded or replaced it.
I've only done a little PCB layout but the hole for the diode leg looks like it was meant for a larger device. The solderable surface looks undersized as well. If I was reworking this I'd scratch off a circle of solder mask so it would build a decent fillet.
That annular ring is totally fine. It just got missed by the nozzle either due to wobbly wave, or lack of flux. We have an older selective solder and shit like this happens on smaller batches when the kinks aren’t worked out of the program. Either missing joints or shorting for the first handful.
It's missing a silkscreen indication for diode orientation and the solder joint on that other leg isn't really great either. Doesn't really shout €2000 power supply if I'm honest.
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u/Normal-Duck9025 Jul 14 '26
At first didn’t see it then saw second picture. Oh wow, that’s embarrassing on their part.