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How a Leather Cover Crashes the Kindle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-no-antennagate dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Amazon has started offering refunds to Kindle owners who own the unlit leather case who claim that it causes their Kindles to reboot, but are playing dumb on the cause: "our engineering team is looking into this." People have been wondering how a leather cover could possibly crash an electronic device, and why is Amazon offering money back if they don't think there's a problem? It seems that some of the folks over at Connectify have figured it out, and it's a doozy!"

4 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. He's got it all wrong by specialperson · · Score: 5, Informative

    First, his meter's reading 2 Megaohms, not 2 Ohms. I guess he's not much of an "Electronics Person". Second, it would appear that he's measuring conductivity though his body to achieve that number. Both of his fingers are touching the probe tips.

    1. Re:He's got it all wrong by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's the hooks. I just took my fiance's mother's Kindle and pulled her non-lit leather cover off.

      Paint worn to SHIT, metal exposed. Metal is brass.

      I didn't even use a multimeter, I just used some new equipment from Nichia's yesterday visit to see if it would actually work as a full conductor.

      Lit the LED up without any problem.

      Quite conductive.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. 2 Ohm or 2 Megaohm? by Danh · · Score: 5, Informative

    The linked article at Connectify says they measured a resistance of 2 Ohm, but on the picture I read 2 MOhm!

    Check yourself with the large version of the picture.

  3. Re:Yikes! by jgagnon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Breakdown: The lighted case gets its power from the connectors that hold the Kindle in the case. The unlit case has these two connectors physically connected even though there is no light. Putting the Kindle into the unlit case where the metal contacts are clean causes a short between the two connectors.

    The ability to get power through those connector points was by design in the Kindle or the lighted case never would have been able to be designed the way it was.

    It sounds to me like the engineer(s) involved with the unlit case did not communicate well with the Kindle engineers or vise versa.

    --
    Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.