heat emitting from the CSM-56F801

[jgabriels]

I am currently using a CSM-56F801 and I have begun noticing that the chip on the board has been getting extremely hot when I plug in the power adapter.  I have timed it and after about 2 min of having the board plugged in, the chip gets so hot that it burns my finger when I touch it.  I am worried that if this keeps up the chip may fry.  Is it normal for the chip to heat up that fast and for it to be that hot.  If not then is there anyway to fix this?
Thanks

[J2MEJediMaster]

I think your instincts are right on this one. The chip shouldn't get that hot normally. It sounds like something's wrong with the board. Before faulting the board, let me ask some basic questions. (Yeah, they're going to sound stupid, but then, I'm not there...)

* Is the power supply using the proper voltages and current?
* Is the polarity of the power connector correct? Many a good board has met an untimely end because people assume power supplys all use the same polarity. They don't, so check.
* Do you have similar power supply that you could use to see if the problem is rooted in the board or the power supply? (The second-opinion option.)

---Tom


Message Edited by J2MEJediMaster on 2007-06-20 11:28 AM

[jgabriels]

Hi Tom,

Thank for replying.  I double checked the power supply that came with the board and it is 9VDC, 300mA which is the correct voltage and current. The polarity of the power connector looks correct.  I was able to get my hands on another power supply and I still got the same problem.  Later today I plan to replace the chip and hopefully the problem will be solved.

Thanks

[jgabriels]

Hi Tom,

I just wanted to update you that we replaced the chip for the 56F801 board and it still heats up.  We tried this on two different boards and they both still heat up.  But because they still run the programs correctly we've decided to continue using them until the heat becomes a issue with the performance of the chip.

thanks.

[J2MEJediMaster]

Are these prototype boards you're working with? I could be wrong, but boy, it seems like that DSP is sinking a lot more current than it should. Tough little things if the chips are running OK while being that hot. Only recommendation I could make right now is get heat sinks onto them to try to keep the temperature within reasonable limits.

---Tom

[peg]

Hi,

It is possible (I have done it!) to blow up one module within the chip and still have the rest of it function quite OK. I have had this occur with a HC908GP32. The TXD pin was shorted while it was configured as such. Configuring it as GPIO allowed everything else to work as long as you did not want the SCI module. It ran quite warm like this. As it was a board used for testing, I ran it like this for quite a while before I eventually replaced the MCU.

Maybe something similar is happening here?