vlite said
Dear All,

Can someone help me to id the FB44 component? My SOLO is only 4-5 months old.

Since I am not in the states right now, I figure that I should get it repair locally.

Attached is my board.

 

I bought a slingbox in August 2012 while I was in USA for tourism. After 3 months no power on the Slingbox the power supply output was fine. Today I opened the slingbox and the same component FB44 has been burned as Vlite comments.

I am assuming the component marked FB 44 is an EMI suppression filter connected to two Ferrite Beads and then to a diode. The diode is to protect reverse polarity.

Since the FB44 exact marking is unknown I am thinking of removing  it and connecting jumper cables from power supply to ferrite beads on the other hand I am not sure whether the FB44 is an EMI suppression filter.

Furthermore I can't understand if FB 44 is an EMI suppressor why it was heavily damaged or exploded.

Any comments or thoughts will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

I just had the same problem as shown in your pics.  The FB44 is a surface mount ferrite bead.  Its purpose is to keep certain RF energies produced inside the box from getting out and potentially interfering  with broadcast radio or TV or other RF bands.  In reality, it is not needed.  However the failure of the device is preventing the slingbox from working.

The component is basically a wire.  Obviously, they overlooked the amount of power that has to pass through it (5V x 3A = 15W max) and it's not rated to handle this.  You can replace it with wire.  The connections pass straight through – just like the photo shows where someone replaced it with two large ferrite beads – wire will work just fine.  That's what I did.

My power supply is just fine – this component burnt out.  I figured this out on my own and replaced it first before finding this site, but I just want to reassure anyone who has to do this – that if you have the capability of desoldering the component – all you have to do to replace it with is wire.   I would have though that this component would have failed with an open, but nope – it shorted out.  The power supply did what it's supposed to do – shut down.

The component is slightly longer than wide.  The connection needs to go across the longer sides, as shown in the photo.  However, you don't have to solder directly to the pads, you can solder directly to the power connector (as it's a lot bigger and easier to see) and then to one of the other components on the other side.

Normally you don't use solder irons on a surface mount board – there are specially designed hot air guns that blow very hot air on the component allowing you to desolder all the pads at once.  I didn't have one of these and had to use a crude radio shack soldeirng gun.  Biggest problem you might run into is that you might lift the pads off the board if you're not careful.  But again, you don't have to solder back to those exact same pads, you can connect from somewhere else connected to it.  The traces are big and wide there, easy to follow.

Hope this helps.

Billy