I’m sure you have all noticed that Desktop 50 Pin BlueSCSI kits have been out of stock here for way too long. This is due to some production struggles – the SD card slot in particular.
For some reason this component has been soldered improperly on a substantial number of PCBs, such that the manufacturer thinks everything is OK (automated optical inspection says “here be solder”) but the connection is actually a “cold solder joint” that needs solder rework to function properly.
I’ve mentioned this to the manufacturer in the hopes that they can pay more attention to it, but it won’t be possible to tell whether they changed anything without further orders.
To help with this situation I’m working on a tool that should allow for testing the kit PCB before sending to ensure the SD slot is actually functional. This should prevent the majority of bad slots from being sent out in kits.