Discussion: Washed my SI card

I just discovered that I washed and dried my SI card. What's the damage? Will it still work?

I've washed mine twice and it's fine...I have an older model, not sure if that makes a difference.

I wash the rental SI cards regularly. I used to remove the straps and wash the straps only, but that got old real quick, so now I wash the whole thing. No problems so far, and some of them have probably been washed 10 times.

Should be ok and depends on the sealing on your unit - when we are lucky enough to be rained upon the cards get wet. Can't say I've had the joy of testing this much in recent years. Overheating the chip in a dryer would be more of a concern.

I've washed the DVOA rentals a couple of times as well with no problems. Not sure about drying though.

I doubt that a clothes dryer would get hot enough to cause any damage. Water is certainly not an issue. If you were trying to use the card (i.e. punch) while it was at dryer temperatures, that might be more of a concern, but as it is I wouldn't expect any problems.

Ross put his SI through the washer and dryer and it works just fine.

I accidentally did the same a few weeks ago. But I haven't tested it since...

I thought I lost mine, and then I found it a week later in the parking lot at work. It showed signs of being run over. It still works.

Obviously SI is in the wrong business. They should instead be manufacturing cell phones!

They sure are tough. But I have noted that after only a year of use (or maybe even less), my SI-6 has hairline cracks over the white plastic tip. I have not seen this on my other SI-6 or anyone else's SI-6, and it still seems to work fine. For now. But I am not sure how much to trust it. It costs so much for me to get to a race, I'm not too keen on taking any chances with a bad punch screwing it up.... I make enough mistakes on my own as it its!

Add some epoxy if you're worried. Or maybe a thin coat of epoxy and then wind some unwaxed dental floss (the old fibrous kind) around it. There's a small computer chip in there, with no leads coming out of it, and you just have to make sure that the chip doesn't fall out.

Is there any chance that the epoxy would seep in and screw up the computer chip? Or is the idea that you don't put on enough epoxy for that to happen?

You might also contact SI and send them a photo of the cracks.

Some plastics are prone to a type of damage called "crazing". It can be stable, but it can also continue to deteriorate.

{And I just have to say, I thought vmeyer's post was the funniest thing I've seen all day: "I wash the rental SI cards regularly..." I laughed out loud. But I understand the need---the straps can get funky. I was laughing at the audacity.}

Has anyone ever transplanted the guts from a dibber into a homemade case?

No concern whatsoever about the epoxy screwing up the chip, although I would avoid the epoxy putties that have metal in them (or J-B Weld) just in case they might interfere with the signal.

I haven't put the chip in a custom case, but I do have a prototype SI card that was given to me that is made from Delrin and can be opened up such that the chip can be pulled out. It doesn't work, though &mdash vmeyer tested it for me and it was dead. Might just be an earlier version of the part that doesn't respond to the current protocol.

The same is happening to mine, Wil. I figure I will likely loose the damn thing before it splits totally open and doesn't work

The tip cracked completely off of my SI-5 card about 4 years ago. Used epoxy to fill in the hole, and have had absolutely no problems with it since.

:) cedarcreek - Rental cards are just so gross!! Just the thought of what accumulated blood, sweat, and snot is on the straps themselves, it is the odor which gets me.

Re: the tips - after soliciting advice from J-J, I filled about a dozen tips with plastic epoxy, and they have all tested just fine. However, it appeared that the chip was rammed in there pretty securely.

That's good info. My SI-6 did the same thing as Wil's, and a little piece of plastic has broken off the tip. Sounds like it's salvageable then.

The danger is the tip breaks off mid-meet and is lost as happened to my brother. Then you're done as the early punches are gone but you can manually punch the rest.

Walk's brother had the entire end of the SI-card break off. My experience with "broken tips" has been when the separate insert has come out of the small end, thus exposing the chip.

The plastic tip of my SI-5 card completely broke off about 5 minutes before an A-meet start a couple years ago. Fortunately vmeyer was on the case: she grabbed a role of duct tape and formed a nice construction containing the broken end, and lot of sticky tape. It worked fine all weekend. Thanks Valerie!

Later I used Swedish Liquisole adhesive to glue the plastic back together, and it has held up fine since then. For those of you going over to the Nordic countries this summer, be sure to stop at a hardware store and purchase a tube...amazing stuff.

Watch out, tip of a hire stick may drop into a punch unit and if organizers help you to get it out from there, you might get disqualified for getting help from outsiders during the race. An organizer with screwdriver likes to help you at last control and you must say "no, don't help me, I'll do it myself". Tricky situation, happened to us once.

That... seems completely preposterous. Somebody needs a reality check.

SI guarantees the SI cards for life. If they are coming apart, such as the tip falling off, they will replace them for free.

Wow! That's great Evan.

I've gone to the SI website. But I see no guarantee actually spelled-out. How do I go about getting a free replacement for my broken SI-5 card? Do I have to package it up and mail it over to Sweden?

Maybe they nixed the warranty after reading this thread.

After speaking to Siegried (who designs / builds the SI hardware) a few months ago he informed me plastic tip (whether insert on card 5 or the tip on 6 or 9) serves no purpose other than aesthetics and a little bit of extra protection. Your SI card should function without problem if the tip is missing, below it is a sealed unit containing the chip.

If there is a problem with the card itself then you should not be going to the Swedish (the company is based in Germany) site above but either your local supplier listed here:
http://www.sportident.com/index.php?site=site.html...
or the main HQ in germany (also listed there)

(Here's some second hand information): A fellow attackpointer - Lori - had an interesting malfunction with her SI card; in cold weather, it failed to work. Unfortunately, she figured this out at the first control of the 2007 Blue Hills Traverse. She had used it to good success previously.

Anyway, when she told the SI people, they were aghast and surprised. They insisted that she mail them the defective card, and they gave her a free SI card of any type (she got an SI 6).

I will encourage her to post the first hand account of events and how well SI responded to her plight.