HexEZCan quit working

jkjohnson said:

Vendor Twisted Throttle sent me a new EZCan and all works normally now.

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jkjohnson said:

My HexEZCan quit working, completely quit, nothing hooked to it works at all, UNLESS I connect a laptop to it, everything then works normally (e.g., high amperage air horn, aux lights, brake lights.) On 2017 R1200GS.
Any thoughts?

I've had it around 10 months--always has worked well. I have an email in to their support but have not heard back yet.

There is normal (12.8v) voltage downstream of the fused battery lead (e.g, it is getting power.)

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jgoertz said:

One question I have (and can't find in the Hex docs), when working properly, does the green light on the EzCan illuminate when the PC is not connected?

Thanks for any enlightment anyone may provide.

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Continuous improvement - increasing the reliability of the HEX ezCAN GEN-II
« on: April 06, 2021, 11:41:48 PM »
Over January we noticed a slight but noticeable increase in specific ezCAN failures. Albeit a small portion of the overall units, it was an uptick in failures highlighted by our trending. Although we have seen a small portion of similar failures the numbers were so low that previous investigations had failed to pinpoint the origins of the failures. Armed with more information at our disposal we launched a detailed investigation into the cause of the failures. As the initial investigation hinted at a possible hardware issue, we temporarily halted production, until such time as we had a definitive reason pointing to the origin of the failures.

The symptoms associated with this particular failure mode are ALL of the following:
The ezCAN is completely dead - no blinking LED, no permanent LED, irrespective whether ignition is ON and/or powered by USB
The physical 30A fuse has continuity and is in working order
No USB communication with the ezCAN from the PC/MAC software
No physical damage
We assembled as many of the failed units as possible. Every unit was put through our rigorous manufacturing test jigs. Additionally, many units were X-rayed. Internal physical damage was found in almost every single case. This was mostly contained to one component near the edge of the board where cracks could be seen between the pins of the component and the solder pads.

After thorough analysis of the data collected during the investigation, it was determined that the potting seemed to be the accelerating factor. Although not all potting or epoxies are suited for electronic components, the one that was in use was carefully chosen and complied to all the requirements, especially the shrinkage factor that so often leads to similar failures if the incorrect compound is used. It is our opinion that the shrinkage due to the colder than usual winter was a contributing factor that highlighted the interaction between several individually otherwise well-suited parts. We are of the opinion that it is not the potting compound per se, but a combination of the different shrinkage constants between the aluminium housing, its form and the potting epoxy that cause the forces on the component level to increase around the rounded edges of the housing where the shrinkage of the aluminium translates to a maximum physical deviation. This conforms to the physical failures we see on the component level on the edges of the PCB, nearest to the rounding of the housing.

We could replicate the failure symptoms on some ezCAN devices by super-cycling a sample of devices in our environmental chamber. This included high stress, accelerated tests (multiple hot to sub-freezing cycles per day), increasing the expansion and contraction forces on the devices. Naturally these fast cycles do not occur in the real world, but their extreme nature helped us to highlight the issues and verify the proposed fixes.

A clear fix was to replace the potting epoxy with a softer polyurethane type. Various products were tested, and a suitable replacement was selected.

Devices manufactured with the new potting compound were put through the same accelerated super-cycle tests in our environmental chamber and we are highly satisfied with the results. Not a single unit failed the extreme cycle test.

We have asked our distributors to replace any GEN-II ezCAN failures that have failed with the above-mentioned failure symptoms, that were manufactured prior to the manufacturing update, irrespective of whether they are within their 2 year warranty period or not. These include only BMW, KTM and HD GEN-II devices sold prior to March 2021.

If you are an ezCAN customer affected such a failure, please contact your distributor.

Finally, there have been some rumours circulating that the GEN-II ezCAN has been discontinued and is being replaced with a GEN-3. Although a GEN-3 will most likely replace a GEN-II at some point in time, it will most certainly have to be conceived in concept first, then designed, refined and finally industrialised… and as we have just put incredible effort into increasing the reliability of the GEN-II devices, GEN-3 will not be anytime soon… if however you are waiting on something new, wait for some interesting accessories for your GEN-II ezCAN!


Whether you are traversing the Outback, crossing the Savannah, getting lost in Mongolia or finding your reflection in Lake Titicaca, your HEX ezCAN should serve you well! Be safe and enjoy the ride!

Stephan

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drneo66 said:

I believe the indicator light is the same between the EZCan and the Denali Cansmart:

"Solid Green = Normal operation (Vehicle Ignition ON)
Slow Flashing Green = Normal operation (Vehicle Ignition OFF)
Quick Flashing Green = Bootloader Mode (Updating Firmware) - Connect to software to complete the update
Solid Red = Recovered from failure - Connect to software to complete the recovery
Flashing Red = Tripped Fuse - Cycle ignition to reset the fuse - If trips again connect to the software to increase the fuse value
Solid Green & Flashing Red = Application Firmware Corrupt - Connect to Software to update firmware
Solid Red & Solid Green = Device authentication failure - Device has been deactivated
Flashing Red & Flashing Green = Data fault - missing CANbus data - Confirm that you are connectedd to the correct CANbus port"

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Unfortunately this did not fix my problem with my 4 yr old Gen I unit, so I'm ordering a new Gen II unit today. Oh, the joys of redoing the wiring!

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bigjohnsd said:

All I had to do was change the wiring side connectors from the originally supplied two lead plugs to the new three lead connectors. Took me about 30 minutes.

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