ESP32 life-time

[svenbieg]

My ESP32-chips only last half a year. I did reduce frequency form 240 MHz to 160 MHz already. I'm using it for a thermal solar control and this is my fourth chip already.

[WiFive]

Sounds bad, but not enough information to know whether to blame the chips or the supporting circuitry or operating conditions.

[ESP_Sprite]

+1, I'm curious what you're doing with them. Anecdotally, I have ESP32s in use for way longer than that and they still work fine.

[svenbieg]

What am i doing wrong? I have 5 analog Inputs and a driver for the relais, some RGB-Leds and a display. The voltage is regulated by an LD33V. The controller is inside of the house, there are always about 20°C. Everything works fine for months.

[ESP_Sprite]

How exactly does it fail when it fails? Do you have a schematic? Especially with a relais or external analog inputs, high-voltage spikes could play a role here.

[svenbieg]

I'm using a voltage divider with the 3.3V supply-voltage, the relais are driven with 5V by an ULN2003. I just wanted to know if this a known problem of the ESP32. I'm going to try the DevkitC, maybe the chip got too hot when i was soldering it on the adapter.

[svenbieg]

How exactly does it fail when it fails? Do you have a schematic? Especially with a relais or external analog inputs, high-voltage spikes could play a role here.

The first chip hung up and restarted after few seconds, so i reduced the frequency. The second chip was my fault, i erased flash too often. Last time the chip didn't drive the LEDs anymore after few weeks.

[ESP_Sprite]

Strange. Without a proper schematics, there's nothing I can say about why it died, but our chips have been designed to work for years and years and them dying after such a short time certainly isn't something that commonly happens.

[ESP_Angus]

How exactly does it fail when it fails? Do you have a schematic? Especially with a relais or external analog inputs, high-voltage spikes could play a role here.

The first chip hung up and restarted after few seconds, so i reduced the frequency. The second chip was my fault, i erased flash too often. Last time the chip didn't drive the LEDs anymore after few weeks.

Just to check I understand: the first chip stopped working at 240MHz but can work at 160MHz still? That's quite odd!

Regarding "erased flash too often", are we talking >100,000 erase cycles here?

[svenbieg]

No, the first chip doesn't work anymore. I reduced frequency on the second chip. Your chip was designed to work many years, but is anyone out there who has chips working that long?