The ware for June 2012 was the control board from a GE PSC23SGPA-SS refrigerator. The part number of the control board is EBX1005G01 / REV N, made by Delphi electronics.

The control board was extracted from a fridge that failed. On the backside, one can see at least part of the cause of failure.

This is the solder joint from one of the larger relays. The joint had failed catastrophically, splattering bits of solder around the board. Replacing the board restored the fridge’s functionality.

All the comments about the complexity of the fridge controller board reminds me of Marvin from the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to…mind the fridge. Maybe the controller board committed suicide out of boredom.

The winner of last June’s competition is nrp. The link provided is to this exact model of board, but with a different revision. Congrats, email me for your prize!

The Ware for June 2012 is shown below.

Thanks to Yi-Fang for sharing this with me!

The Ware for May 2012 was a BGA re-balling tool. I picked this one up in Hua Qian Bei for about 80 RMB (~US$12), including stencils, balls, and other accessories. The lady who sold it to me was even nice enough to give me a little training on reballing.

I first encountered this tool being used in a factory to re-ball GDDR5 memory. The factory produced a line of graphics cards, and the memory was being stripped from graphics cards where the GPU failed test and were deemed un-salvageable. Before seeing this, I was under the impression that reballing was an involved process, but with this jig the operator could strip and reball a chip in under a few minutes, which translates to a labor cost of a couple dozen cents. This also explains how so many cheap SoCs end up for sale in the gray market — most of them are extracted from used phones, reballed, and re-packaged into tape and reel and sold as new. Given that a legitimate, brand new reel of these chips has a fair market value equivalent to an entry-level automobile, it’s now easy for me to understand the profit motive behind such efforts.

zyp got the answer very quickly, and is the prize winner, but I’m also giving a second honorary prize to sanjay, for the most entertaining explanation of what BGA reballing is:

BGA is the Ball Gilders Association.

As the name implies, it is a trade association of Ball Gilders. If you have never heard of them before, it is because they cater to a very exclusive clientele comprising some of the most discerning billionaires on this planet (millionaires need not apply).

Gilded Balls are the ultimate bling for a young man in his prime, and guaranteed to make an impact on the exclusive young ladies in your life.

However, the downside is that sometimes a gentleman will awaken after a night of revelry, and find his balls have been stolen.

This is where the reballer comes in. We have an exclusive range of prosthetic balls made of Gutta Percha, which we will install (at no additional cost) for any of our esteemed clients who have been unfortunate enough to have their ball stolen by one of the despicable 99% we happen to (unfortunately) have to share this planet with.

That’s just hilarious. Congrats, email me for your prize.

The Ware for May 2012 is shown below.

I scored one of these in the markets of Shenzhen a couple months ago, after watching technicians at a factory use them with great effect. I’m curious as to how many readers have seen or used one of these.

The ware for April 2012 was 424C Key Telephone Unit, made by Western Electric around 1979. Its purpose in life was to provide an intercome path, with dial-selective signaling, in the 1A2 Key Telephone System. Here’s the explanation of how it worked, courtesy Bruce Lane:

The way it worked: A user would select the appropriate button on their phone for the intercom circuit, and go off-hook. They would then dial one or two digits, representing the number of the desired destination within their system (the card provided up to 19 available codes). The card provides talk battery, counts the dial pulses, and then fires off a one-second or so (it’s adjustable — note the presence of the pot behind the big transformer) burst of either 18 volts AC (for a buzzer) or 100 volts AC at 20-30Hz (for a ringer). The person at the other end picks up, and Vy-ola! You’re connected and chatting.

The intercom’s talk path was not private. Anyone else in the system, upon seeing the intercom line in use, could pick up and chime in on the call. The only thing selective about this unit was the signaling. Western Electric made efforts to improve on this in later years, with the addition of multiple intercom paths in the ‘ComKey’ series of hybrid (part electromechanical, part electronic) Key Telephone Systems, but this was right around the time PBX’s and electronic systems were really taking off. This rendered further development on such things moot.

Russ Dill was very close on guessing the ware first, and Yuubi found a closer match shortly afterwards — tough call on who should win, but I liked that Russ’ link included schematics, so I’ll declare Russ Dill the winner! congrats, email me for your prize!