Unplugging microdamper fried my Pi Zero


 

JanW

New member
Hi All!

Want to start by saying thanks for all the really great efforts you are putting in to create the heatermeter and the associated dampers!

Over the last weeks I have sourced all the parts in The Netherlands and have built a Heatermeter and a Microdamper. All came together really well! Even the SMD soldering for the TC stuff wasn't as scary as I thought it would be :).

I did run into one issue I wanted to share. Yesterday while testing, I accidentally unplugged the TRRS jack from the microdamper whilst the fan was running. Immediately, the LCD went blank and the unit stopped working, furthermore a burnt smell came from the device.

A quick inspection learned that the RPI Zero was cooking. Unplugged the pi, and gladly the HM unit still worked perfectly well :). I tested the RPI separately, it refuses to boot and gets really hot real quick. Some reading indicates that probably the 12v ended up at the RPI somehow.

I ordered a new RPI and will be very careful with the TRRS jack from now on. But I still wonder how this could have happened, should it be possible to blow up the RPI by unplugging the jack? Or do I maybe have made a mistake somewhere that could be the cause of this happening... What do the experts think?
 
Thanks for the suggestion :). I decided to ditch the connector as a whole, and just fed the ethernet cable through the hole, and used a tie wrap on the inside to take tension of the connections in case someone pulls / trips the cable.
 
Thanks for the suggestion :). I decided to ditch the connector as a whole, and just fed the ethernet cable through the hole, and used a tie wrap on the inside to take tension of the connections in case someone pulls / trips the cable.
I had concerns about the TRRS connection and if this was a possibility so I did the same thing. Just run the ethernet cable right in, through a grommet:

I also put a couple zipties inside for strain relief so the cable can't pull out.
 

 

Back
Top