ESP32 Manufacturing QC issues

[Foxabilo]

C15 on the poorly performing modules is either bad or misvalued, I don't have a capacitance meter with enough resolution at home to check what the values are but if C15 is removed the units with poor performance get back to full speed albeit with slightly spotty reception, so clearly a replacement value capacitor is required, I'll use the good units as a reference when I can find what the value is with any degree of accuracy.

I tested the removal procedure with 11 de-lided bad units and they have all returned to almost full performance, my only worry now is how many units are affected and where to go to purchase stock to be sure of correctly manufactured modules.

esp322.PNG (726.09 KiB) Viewed 4709 times

[ESP_Angus]

Thanks Foxabilo for this information, I'm glad you found a root cause even if it appears to be internal to the module.

This has been forwarded to our RF and Manufacturing teams for their feedback. They will probably ask for MAC addresses of some of the bad & good modules so they can check manufacturing details, do you happen to have this information?

[ESP_Angus]

They will probably ask for MAC addresses of some of the bad & good modules so they can check manufacturing details

In additional to requesting this info, they've also asked for some photos of how the module is mounted, the full device, and the full device in the test environment.

Mounting of the module and nearby objects can influence the RF performance, and removing C15 also changes the RF characteristics, so they think it's possible that it's something with the installation.

If you'd rather not post the photos in a public forum, you can Private Message them to me on here. Same goes for MAC addresses.

[javadog]

Hello,
any news on this topcic? Did you find out the cause of the RF performance problems?
Thanks a lot!

JD