Hi
I had got Accucel 6 charger this month from HC. I used it few times. but this weekend noticed some rattling sound inside. Opened the charger yesterday to find, to my horror, one screw moving freely around!!
It had come loose from the PCB mount. Out of 3 screws holding the PCB to the casing only 1 was tight!! 1 had come off and was freely dancing around while other was on the verge to come out (it was on its last threads)!! Luckily it didnt short when i was charging my batteries!!
But would like to send across a word of caution to all to check these and other chargers before using (or for that matter anything else).
Am also confused as to how and when the screws could have come loose?? cause i dont recall any sound inside when i got the charger (am generally careful about that, and now more the reasons!), could it be cause of some continuous micro vibrations?? because of the fan or else??
Mpp

Thanks Mpp!!!

I just got one today delivered for my friend. Shall open the charger and do the necessary checks !!!

Thanks
Saurabh.

First order check would be just to shake it a bit n hear for any sound.. but if u can open it just check the screws!!

Sure thanks

This applies to many devices. Rattling sound is not good. 

Wowwww!!! After blades flying OFF Rotor Heads on HK-450, now charger Screws!!!

Has HC sold all of its Thread Locker?

I have never ever heard Fan motor unscrewing PCB screw, except may be in 'Final Destination' , even if you dont put Thread Lock! This is clearly Turnigy Assembly guy's problem... they might have just forgot to tight the screw after fitting them!!

This also tells what kind of QA they are doing (while here I am delaying my Code-Drop to my QA, just to remove any possible bug!!)

Well you think its Assembly Guy who assembles all these? I think its the machines job. Well by the way the accucel has to travel through a long distance to reach its destination, dodging Indian postal departments throw and catch mechanism  forget the bumpy roads if any. A screw coming off is no big deal, may it be a branded benz or a cheap charger. 

It is all a case of you get what you pay for.  Even then it is a great value, that these one off issues are not a problem at all.


Hardly anyone uses Assembly and Machine code directly now   I think it is done using Flex or SilverLight or HTML5 these days  >

PS: Crude attempt at humor for bored software folks !

Such a uniformity could not be achieved even by a 'Computer Controlled Viberator' to unscrew all the the 4 screw by induced vibration to the Charger.
... so the chances that all the screws going off at once is lesser than an Air-Miss. Even in movies, only one wheel of the Heroine comes off - not  all the four!!

And about assembling the Chargers by Robos - looking at the motor winding, connector soldering, I suspect the final assembly be done by machines... automated component placement and soldering of PCBs

just my 2Cents

I couldn't agree more than this ... yet another summer trip scarified due to office work - task to marry legacy code to latest 64-bit Windows platform!! Jeeeesss! What to say about making planes and flying them!!

In my recent chat with JUNSI (manufacturer of icharger), I was told that the PCB layout and soldering is all done by machines or robots, but the final assembly into the case and final wiring (like main leads, input leads etc) are done my hand. So, the final board is screwed by hand onto the casing after applying the heat paste.

Bingo!! You directly chatted with JUNSI ? I planning to call the Futaba cartel and protest against their costly receivers!!

Yup!! Junsi knows me very well as I have been doing testing for their product (Icharger 106B+) I have even suggested modifications and reported bugs in their frimware. Version 3.13f had my contributions which graduted this from beta to the production batch. []

That makes sense for the soldering on the PCB is VERY clean and perfect!! and Ujwana not 4, but only one had come off. the second was on the verge of coming loose. And vibrations is just a possibility that i mentioned, because that can surely make screws loose.. in case of human negligence it is possible to totally forget to put a screw, but to half screw one and forget other...... umm that guy must surely be thinking about some code-breaking or a job change!! :-)
anyways i have kept the screws slightly tightened, if it is really vibrations it should happen again (but then others should had also noticed it!). If not.. All iz well....