From 09445eb179f29da0e79b8fbece5aef296b1ddd70 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Eric S. Raymond" And now ESR tells a hardware-repair war story: The BU-303 has a design flaw. It has an internal SuperCap,
-probably used to drive static RAM holding fix information when the
-unit is unplugged or powered down. The only thing holding the battery
-om the PCB is the solder on its leads. Older versions of the BU-303 (before mid-September 2004) had a
+design flaw. The device has an internal SuperCap, probably used to
+drive static RAM holding fix information when the unit is unplugged or
+powered down. The only thing holding the battery on the PCB was the
+solder on its leads. Mechanical vibration and shock (from events like allowing the GPS
-to fall on the floor) can stress and eventually break the solder bond.
+to fall on the floor) could stress and eventually break the solder bond.
If you start hearing a rattling noise from inside the BU-303 case,
this has probably happened. The least-bad effect this can have is
that the unit will start taking longer to acquire a first fix, because
every time you plug it in will effectively be a cold start. If the loose
SuperCap's contacts land in the right places, they can destroy or
-subtly derange the unit.
After the battery has been loose for a while, the USB transciever in the device may go catatonic. You will know this has happened if -- cgit v1.2.1