It is a tad more than i am comfortable with… I am worried that you might have been on to something with your concerns about the flip chip mounted NTAG216 on the bullseye. The only thing I can think of would be to deploy a resin or some sort overtop to try to stabilize that section… but honestly… there might be multiple things going on here. The example with LED problems + NTAG216 not reading… that feels like an encapsulation problem… but examples where LEDs are fine but NTAG216 isn’t reading… that feels like a chip mount problem…
Ultimately I believe I will need to rethink the flexNExT and the use of the bullseye.
I didn’t read any such problem in the reports from Ottomagne, Mattsudo or Dtwebb44. If I recap (please people concerned, correct me if I misunderstood):
1/ Ottomagne’s blinkies work
2/ Mattsudo’s blinkies work, but they seem to light up “individually” from the video he posted
3/ Dtwebb44’s blinkies work, he just had a hard time seeing the probe pulses
Re 2/ specifically, I understood it as the reader phone coupling with the blinkies more as individual blinkies, as opposed to the three blinkies being somewhat cross-connected inductively through the bullseye’s larger antenna underneath. Or said another way, if the bullseye has gone open circuit, the blinkies might behave more independently of each other.
It’s just a guess though. But none of the three failures indicate that the coating has been compromised to me.
If this was a normalish product, as in not installed in a human, then the best way to sort it out would be to pull the affected units and thoroughly inspect / test them.
But, because it is a in-human product, I wonder if anyone plans to pull their unit out for examination, or do you all just want to keep the reduced (blinky) functionality?
Considering how invasive that install was, I could really understand not wanting to give it up. I could replace my NeXT easily, but I’d cry if it broke down on me.
If mine fails, I will have it replaced (with something else possibly). So yeah, it’ll get pulled out, and sent back to Amal if he wants to have a look at it. Not sure how mangled it’ll be after that process though.
In my case, NTAG failure would mean only blinkies left. Everybody else would still have a working LF chip though. They may not want to reopen themselves since they would be left with an oversized shiny functional flexEM essentially.
That’s a more succinct version of what I was asking, yes. 3 could have either been absolutely nothing, or a significant amount.
Are you thinking enough of a rethink that it’s worth holding off on the slicing and dicing? I’m booked to get cut open next week, but if we’re thinking its a material fatigue and flex thing it sounds like potentially all of them have a built-in expiry date?
There is also an active ticket on our help system for a flexNExT that has LEDs not working along with the ntag216… but yeah mostly this feels like a flip chip issue.
As for everyone with issues… I definitely want to take a look at those units… I will definitely supply a replacement with resin and some additional support for the chip, but I’ll ship those ahead of time so it can be swapped out with the same procedure.
If you feel like
If you aren’t feeling good about it, I’d hold off and return it and I can send a new modified resin backed version of the flexNExT for you
This is honestly what I was hoping for, in the case that they needed to come out and be examined. I’d be more than happy to get mine out and send it back in this case. It might have to wait until after the new year to be able to afford the procedure costs, but I’m game.
I think this might be the play, I’ll let the installer know. Should I hit the orange button yet or hold off till you have a chance to experiment with the epoxy?
It’s a shame that there were a couple of these little unexpected issues, but massive props to you guys for always delivering the best in customer and product support - very few companies will stand behind their products to this degree and it doesnt go unnoticed or unappreciated!
Will the reinforced center make it too rigid for top of the hand placement? It currently bends like a Pringle chip. Will it still be semi flexible like that?
I have no stake in this, just an outside perspective.
Your social life would improve enormously. It’s wall-to-wall sex over here. Although it does tend to get tiring - that and the constant pressure from the groupies.
I feel silly that I got a replacement with the new packaging if there will be another modification before I get it put in. The pandemic put a pause on things.
Watching progress has made me rethink position a few times. Body mods have sidelined me on martial arts the last few years. Chest bar mounting piercings and a firefly in my hand.
Actually it’s not going to change much about the center. The NTAG216 chip is a tiny black spec off to one side and it’s attached to the antenna using flip chip process. It’s actually super interesting as they use anisotropic or “z-axis” glue that is only conductive in the z-axis. This means you can drop a glob of it down and slap an IC with pads overtop pads on a pcb and just glue it down and it’ll work. This is a close up of the ntag216 on the bullseye… with a small PET film overtop creating a kind of halo around it.
The thought is that this fragile little connection is being broken. The remedy I will attempt is to remove the pet film over the chip and apply a thick wide blob of UV cure resin overtop to help protect it. More labor intensive for sure.
And actually the main reason I did not went for the FlexNExT.
on the back of the hand it looks far too astonishing. but It would also be too prone for accidents within all my physical activities. Even the wrist would be risky (for me) for such a big one-piece…
But that comes down to how multiple implanted independent flex surfaces resist better to concussion damage than a single piece over the same area.
It’s also possible the barrels of these vias are cracking. Depends on if they used a riveting technique for the flex PCB or whether they used conventional electroless copper techniques.
