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CC3200MOD: Failed to auto connect, provision or reprogram/reformat after normal use

Tony Pan10
Intellectual 330 points
Part Number: CC3200MOD
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC3200

Hi,

We use the CC3200MOD on three different products. It happened more than a dozen times that after working properly for some time the CC3200 module on all three boards suddenly ceased to auto connect to router at power up, or ceased to be provisioned, or ceased to be reprogrammed, or reformatted.

Some times a board cannot work properly anymore after being reformatted and reprogrammed with the same image. Some time a board cannot be reprogrammed. Some times a board that has been working for a while suddenly cannot auto connect after power up; attempts to re-provision it failed.

We don't know why. When we remove the CC3200 from the board and solder a new one in, the problem goes away.

I don’t imagine it is a problem that CC3200 inherently has, because otherwise with such a high failure rate CC3200 would not survive in the industry. I would like to know if you can shed light on what could cause that to happen. Would programming tool, programming script, or our software code itself cause these kind of problems?

A few more details:

* In the lab, we rewired the CC3200MOD launch pad to program the CC3200 on our boards. In one instant, we identify one of them became bad and corrupted whatever CC3200 it tried to program -- that CC3200 were not useful anymore. In production we use the TI board http://www.ti.com/tool/cc31xxemuboost. We haven’t produced enough to see problems.

* We do have solder joint problems underneath the CC3200MOD in production and conceivably when manually soldered in the lab. In those case we could see the CC3200 wasn't working immediately. But our question is regarding to a board that is working for a while suddenly loses some wifi functionality.

In other words, if you can help us look into it that will be appreciated. This problem is bothering us.

Thank you!

Tony

  • 0
    TI__Expert 8255 points

    Hi Tony,

    Was your application first developed on the CC3200MOD launchpad?  If so, does this issue repeat on this hardware?

    Is there a method to reproduce the problem?  I would suggest resolving the solder joint problem and checking out the hardware design review process sheet to verify your design against TI guidelines.

  • 0 in reply to Austin Tanner
    Intellectual 330 points

    Hi Austin,

    Thanks for the response. When we use the launchpad we didn't experience the same problem. But we didn't use it for very long; we developed and used our own hardware boards.

    We don't have a way to reproduce the problem. We are trying to resolve the solder joint issue. We are copying the TI reference design and copying the layout. We also sent Nate Enos the TI FAE our schematic.

    Have you heard of this problem before? Can you think of any possible cause rather than solder joint? I am referring to the problem that it works for weeks but suddenly stop working.

    Regards,

    Tony

  • 0 in reply to Tony Pan10
    TI__Genius 9410 points

    Hi Tony,

    I took a look at your schematic and the only thing I wanted to double check was you had the 2 recommended 100uF caps close to pin 37 for decoupling. Noise coupling into the power supply could cause some connection issues. 

    Other than that I had a few comments from the review, but none that I would except to cause the issues you describe:

    • Do you have a pull up on pin 46? Or are you not using it for programming?
    • Pull up on pin 47 as well? (helps in low power hibernate)
    • add 100k Pull down on pin 21 if you want low current in LPDS mode. 

    I've also sent the schematic to Austin privately so he can reference it as well.

    My only other thought is it could be ESD damage. Do you have any exposed pins that aren't ESD protected? 

    Best regards,

    Nate

  • 0 in reply to Nate Enos
    TI__Expert 8255 points
    Since this issue is being handled outside the context of this forum, I'm closing this thread.