Quote:
Originally Posted by morfinx
I would think that with the newer style plug-n-play connectors, it is not possible to connect the lines wrong.
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I am not an electrician, but in my understanding of the explanation, wrong polartity should have not been an issue in the older module's circuit:
- The "Verpoldiode" prevents damage due to wrong polarity but has never shown any issues.
- The "Polyfuse" is not exactly a fuse but a kind of a resistor that increases its value if the current sent through it is too high. This will prevent the circuit from high currents (so it's normally not necessary to replace the Polyfuse in case of malfunction). However, the Polyfuse of course cannot stand unlimited load and will blow ("burn") under certain currents nonetheless.
- The "Suppressor Diode" is a transient voltage suppressor diode in order to prevent the module's circuit from high and transient voltage peaks. Such peaks are simply grounded to the chassis as the diode is placed between + and - of the module's power supply. If the diode fails (as some did), not only the peaks but all current of the power supply is sent to ground = shortcut. This is the moment when even the Polyfuse dies.
- So the module is simply "switched off" - this is the same situation as with some of the older modules without connector harness if they are not properly connected to +/- 12V.
Therefore I do not believe that only the newer design with the connector harness will avoid the failure issue. As already mentioned, a newer circuit design (or at least a better suppressor diode) is necessary. It appears that the new circuit design has been introduced on 19/01/2011 (serial numbers starting with 110119-xxx). Smarttop had a notice on their website with this serial number, so I believe this number is a quite good indicator for "safe" modules.