Agilent U1272A crappy soldering

[zaoka]

They are ignoring bugs with U3401 and U3402 and are not providing a solution (they did not even notify their customers that a problem exist), I am sure they would do the same with U1272A.

 

[Corporate666]

Hi Mike,

Nice to hear up the update fro Wrapper.  What is the process for others who appear to have the same issue?

Thanks,
Mark

ExtremeXS,

Hope all is well with you.  Happy to answer your question.

Bottom Line is that we haven't seen any units on the EEVBlog Forum that are significantly 'unacceptable', except Wraper's unit.  This is why we're taking the special process to insure the unit gets into the Product Manager's hands.  Wraper's unit will go through a special process - but expect all other repair/service issues to go through our normal process.

The other issues are based on a case-by-case basis.  The units have a warranty and any failures will be honored by Agilent.  We have a service process and the team will verify if there's a failure.  If a failure is confirmed, then a new unit will be exchanged for your failed unit.

You can simply click on Agilent.com's 'contact an expert' link from the U1272A product page, and will give your local team's phone number and email.  (and interestingly, I sit next to our Worldwide Service & Support Manager so happy to assist if any troubles in contacting the right people).

As noted in a previous note, want to document the warranty -- it has changed to a 3 year warranty after 1 March 2013.  This is worldwide; and for all sales channels/distributors.

Mike

Can you please comment on the one with the diode that came off.  Per Agilent's standards, does that qualify as "significantly unacceptable"?

If only the one was significantly unacceptable, does that mean that the other pics posted meet Agilent QC standards?  Or do they not? 

[mike_kawasaki]

Can you please comment on the one with the diode that came off.  Per Agilent's standards, does that qualify as "significantly unacceptable"?

If only the one was significantly unacceptable, does that mean that the other pics posted meet Agilent QC standards?  Or do they not?

I can't comment on every case, but let me reiterate and restate the Division Support Engineer's statement in a previous post:  Agilent Will Stand Behind These Products And Replace Anything That Is Defective.

Many of you have been great fans and loyal buyers of HP/Agilent equipment.  We don't want to risk our relationship with any of you!  A failed units (including the diode that came off) will be exchanged for new units.  As noted earlier, it is required to work through the Support Center as they manage all the local return/exchange processes and can manage the regional or country logistics.

I've talked to the Division Support Manager live.  She will insure all units are replaced if you deem them defective.

The team has not found a systemic problem based on their manufacturing records; however, that is why they urgently want to return some units to the Factory (as you might imagine, not all returned units actually make it back to the factory because the logistics costs are not warranted).  We have policies around when to do a recall but think it is too early; since the division is only going from a few pictures.  Agilent commits to fully analyze all returned units and investigate any faulty manufacturer process and decide if a certain 'batch' was effected.

Now I'm going back to enjoying my weekend with the family  .  Hope everyone had a good weekend in their part of the world!

Mike

[ivan747]

I think we all appreciate you took time from your weekend to contribute to this thread. Personally I know it can be a problem sometimes.

[retiredcaps]

Hmm, 3 weeks since the last public update here on the forum.

When I dealt with crisis management, a "regular" update meant daily or weekly information.

Even a note saying "we are still looking into it" every monday would suffice.

[wraper]

Multimeter itself arrived 5 days ago but I said courier to leave it at my work. Last week I was at some fascinating place called Prokopyevsk (Siberia, Russia) . Was repairing some lab equipment there. Returned home 2 hours ago. Picture from there - 284V  in mains socket instead of 220V nominal in Russia. Some good stress test to equipment, hell yeah. I'll write about new multimeter shortly. I already took some photos. While soldering on PCB is good, not all things are so nice about it.

[wraper]

I added the pictures of new multimeter in comparison with bad one. As you can see there is HUGE difference in soldering quality. Both boards are REV005. Agilent also added bodge wire in parallel to Amps terminal probe sensing trace. Now about bad things. I noticed that one inductor has cracks on both sides above terminals. Also I noticed that buzzer sounds an order of magnitude quieter than on old one. Default buzzer frequency setting is 3491Hz, on that old multimeter is very loud, however on other frequencies it sounds much quieter and similar to new one. New one has almost the same loudness on all frequencies.

[wraper]

Then I started to figure out why new is not loud as old one. I hooked buzzer from old to new and bingo, it became as loud as old. I also noticed that in the old one buzzer is soldered nice and clear but in the new one soldering is dodgy. I hooked them to signal gen and discovered that the old one has most loudness at 3.50 kHz, so default frequency setting of 3491 Hz is not coincidence. However new one hasn't resonance on that frequency and is most loud on 3 kHz but not as loud as the old one at 3.50 kHz. I even measured capacitance of both and they are almost the same. Then I decided to make that dodgy solder joint normal, it just pissed off my eyes. And I found why that solder joint looked dodgy and much bigger than on the old one. There is a hole in metallization which was hidden beneath solder. Looks like wire was broken off with piece of metallization and worker decided to hide it beneath solder. That's describes why this buzzer has not resonance on right frequency. Buzzer is not big deal and I can live with it but what the hell Agilent, what's happening. Of course it's possible that metallization came off while I was soldering. But that would be too easy, I even didn't move that wire because it goes under the shield. Anyway that buzzer wasn't as good as another one.

[tomi]

I had my multimeter packed and about to be shipped back to Farnell UK (the local distributor said they couldn't bother since they didn't sell it), when Agilent contacted me and stated they would arrange the exchange directly.

They really did and the new meter arrived on Wednesday. The DHL courier was supposed to pick the old one for return, but said he didn't know anything about it, so it's still lying around. So I'm left with a complete set of functioning spare parts... 

Yes, of course I checked: the soldering in this one is ok. I was just about to write a nice post praising their responsiveness and support - after all it wouldn't be right to raise a stink here first and then keep mum when the problem was resolved. And then I put in the batteries and turned the thing on. No battery and APO (auto power off) indicators on the LCD. They could be brought to life by gently twisting the multimeter case and disappeared again when it was put back on the table.

The plastic display frame was screwed in loosely and had some play. And there was something that looked like flux residue on the gold-plated contacts that mate with the silicone zebra rubber. After cleaning the contacts and screwing back the frame everything works fine. I really didn't think this would merit another round trip via DHL to Malaysia.

So, Agilent kept their promise to replace the faulty unit, the new one works after being slightly repaired In contrast to wraper's, the buzzer on this one is ear-piercing loud. Occasional quality hiccup aside  I like the U1272A and have actually ordered another one at work in the mean time. I haven't received it yet, but sure hope the third time's a charm. Or am I nuts?

 

[Lightages]

Wow. I am not impressed. They had the chance to make this right and the two examples we have here are bad too?

Well I am glad I did not get an Agilent now. This is getting crazy. You can't count on any company anymore.

Well at least we still have Brymen......

[Hydrawerk]

  I hope that this was only a bad luck or something.  Most Agilent stuff should be OK. 

[wraper]

Shipped the old one to Agilent. They arranged DHL pick up.

[Corporate666]

I added the pictures of new multimeter in comparison with bad one. As you can see there is HUGE difference in soldering quality. Both boards are REV005. Agilent also added bodge wire in parallel to Amps terminal probe sensing trace. Now about bad things. I noticed that one inductor has cracks on both sides above terminals. Also I noticed that buzzer sounds an order of magnitude quieter than on old one. Default buzzer frequency setting is 3491Hz, on that old multimeter is very loud, however on other frequencies it sounds much quieter and similar to new one. New one has almost the same loudness on all frequencies.

Wow!

Will be very interested to hear Agilent's response to this.

Honestly, this is what QC is all about.  Every meter should be the same in form and in function.  A buzzer not working right should not make it out of QC.  Neither should the cracked inductor, but I can see that being harder to detect.

[mikes]

Ouch. Seems like Agilent is following HP downhill.

[mzacharias]

Up until now I haven't felt the need to open my U1272A since I had seen plenty of pics here and elsewhere - I thought it would be better to leave it "pristine" inside.
That certainly changed after seeing this thread.

I now plan to open my U1272A for inspection, and my U1253B as well.

Edit -

U1272A  s/n MY52120110
U1253B  s/n MY51250065

Both OK, just the usual RoHS dullness, a few connections maybe "look" funny but aren't.

Turrets on the 1253B are good.

[true]

After reading this I also checked my U1272A, s/n starting MY5231 - solder itself looks like crap but that's just the solder; the soldering is fine. Also get the voltage fluctuations if my hand is near the buttons. Meter works great, thankfully =)

[whwong]

Hello,

We have received the poor solder quality boards and have performed the failure analysis. It is below our solder quality expectations, which prompted us to pull out samples from boards manufactured within the same date code. We do not detect failure in those samples and we suspect the returned boards poor soldering  are most likely related to board contamination.

We have implemented more stringent board cleaning process as well as a more higher magnification end of line inspection.

We apologize for the inconvenience cause and appreciate the time you have taken to highlight this issues to help us further improve our quality.

Regards,
Agilent Technologies

[Lightages]

Well I for one am impressed. It is not usual for any company to state what the exact problem was/is for a process nor the possible fix, especially publicly.

Thank you for being open and honest.

[retiredcaps]

We have received the poor solder quality boards and have performed the failure analysis.

Your response on what steps going forward is exactly what I expected to be shared publicly.

Thank you.

[mike_kawasaki]

We have received the poor solder quality boards and have performed the failure analysis.

Your response on what steps going forward is exactly what I expected to be shared publicly.

Thank you.

Thanks again to the EEVBlog Group.  You highlighted an issue.  The beauty of this 'social media' is that we heard about the problem very quickly, while also understanding that it affected multiple units. 

Glad to hear the Division was able to pinpoint the issue and have updated their process.

Mike Kawasaki

[Hydrawerk]

Owon (with their noisy scopes) should learn from Agilent. 

[sparkybg]

U1272A, serial MY53050166: No problem with soldering and no cracks on the inductor:

[Psi]

Damn, if i was sorting out replacements to send to customers in this kind of public situation you can bet i would take the replacement apart and confirm it is 100% perfect before sending. I wouldn't be grabbing one off the shelf and putting it straight into a DHL box.

 Otherwise Murphy's law says you're going to pick the only other bad unit on the shelf .