Cobra gets hot and shuts down

Now very often my 3.5 screen goes white and Cobra stop working (Cobra OEM kit).

So I hooked it up to external power supply running 6.0 Volt, Cobra takes about 350-400mA, but after a while (sometimes just seconds) the screen goes white and Cobra load my powersupply with 1050 mA. The 5V pin in Cobra now only have 2.6 volt.

I look for hot components, IC1 on main-board is hot and also C2 on display-board is to hot.

I also tried to power Cobra (5V in/out pin) with 5.0V, after a short time, screen goes white and Cobra load 1450mA from my power supply.

I can’t see any pattern, sometimes this happens after a few seconds, sometimes after 30 minutes.

Nothing is connected to Cobra.

Did I get a “Friday car”, I can’t develop like this, and absolutely not ask my customer to try it…

-update-
I tested to erase Cobra with MFDepoly (Cobra say waiting for debug…). But after 5-6 minutes the screen goes white and Cobra consumes 1100mA, the “C2” component on displayboard is now very hot.

I kill the power and whait for “C2” to cool down. Power on again and Cobra runs for 30 seconds before it goes white again (consumes more power and “C2” gets hot again).

This is very unusual. Do you have another cobra? Can you contact GHI directly for RMA and exchange please. We will get back to you once we learn more about what is wrong with that one cobra.

…and GHI would not ship anything less than perfect. We will take care of you like we always do.

I hope it’s unusual. Are there more steps I can try? like disconnect the screen or so?

No I don’t have another Cobra, typical it would breakdown when I live on the other side of the world…

Thousands are used by hundreds of customers around the world :slight_smile: Qulity is a must here.

  1. What is the voltage you measure on the output of the 2 regulators, 5V and 3.3V?
  2. Do you have any problems if you disconnect the display?
  3. Remove the display and run cobra off 12V supply. This will heat up the regulators but does it ever shut down?

I messured 5V in/out pin where I have 4.85V, 3.3 out pin I have 3.3V, this with 6.0V input (before it crash).

I removed the screen and run Cobra on 12V, IC1 is litle hot. I messure 5V on 5v in/out pin and 3.3 on the 3.3 out pin.

I run a small program that display time on a 2x16 LCD serial display, and it’s still runs after 45 minutes.

Is it the 3.5" screen that causes the error?

It is possible. You can send us your display or whole system back for further testing.

It sure looks like it the 3.5" screen. I had it running without 3.5" screen (just the 2x16 LCD) for 2 hours on 12V. I connect the 3.5" screen run Cobra on 6.0V, just 10 seconds and the screen goes white and hight power load again.

We have getting this same issue, using 4.3" screeen, we have tested 4 screens on different Cobras, but 2 screen pieces having this exactly same problem. Get hot, white screen…

Any news about this?

There was very few LCD boards with a problem. Please contact GHI directly to check if yours have an issue. Contact Us – GHI Electronics

I have had the same issue for some time. Also, I am trying to send an email to the support email address and it keeps getting kicked back with a 550 error - access denied - invalid HELO…arrrg :wink:

Can you try a different email address? You can always call the office if email doesn’t work…or even come by for a tour :slight_smile: