[TangerineSDR] RX888 failures - speculation

[Tom McDermott]

Hi All -   some speculation about the RX888 failures.

My RX888 unit does not seem to get warm when running.  One would think that
the thermal pads would
conduct the heat out of the chips and to the case.

Normally thermal pads are designed to be applied to the top of the hot IC,
then the heatsink pressed
against it. That squishes the thermal pad and causes it to fill any gaps
between the IC and the metal heatsink.

On Monday's zoom session it looked like the PC board is slid into the case
rather than having the top pushed down onto
the IC.   If so, the thermal pad may not be making good thermal contact to
the case.  This might explain
why the case seems so cold.

Perhaps if the Cypress IC overheats it might fail?

Does anyone have experience with a case getting warm / hot and the failure
occurring?  This would
be a contraindication to this theory.

-- Tom, N5EG
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