Bad battery connection killed my gauge cluster?

Yeah, I was gonna say....I don't want Nissan developing a brake-by-wire system if an instrument cluster dies just sitting there.

To be fair I don't think anyone is doing this on automobiles yet, but I feel like they've been chomping at the bit for years. Eventually they'll convince the legislators it's perfectly safe. "We spared no expense...." er, oops
 
Yeah, I was gonna say....I don't want Nissan developing a brake-by-wire system if an instrument cluster dies just sitting there.

To be fair I don't think anyone is doing this on automobiles yet, but I feel like they've been chomping at the bit for years. Eventually they'll convince the legislators it's perfectly safe. "We spared no expense...." er, oops
Accelerator by wire has been around for a couple of decades now.
They build in redundant fail safe circuits, in safety related systems.
 
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Glad you got it fixed.

Still quite surprised you can fry a cluster at the battery. Bad overcurrent protection design it seems.
Me too.

Wild guess: maybe it has a switching power supply in it. When fed low voltage, it might be pulling high current, higher than normal, in order to feed whatever it feeds. Power out is about same as power in, so low voltage goes to high current. Thing is, it should have power not ok limit, the output transistor rated for it, and the inductor likewise. Bad design ultimately: should realize voltage too low and stay safe--or used better parts.

I suppose it could be a bad tantalum, too much inrush. Or any other marginal component. Still seems like a marginal design.

Accelerator by wire has been around for a couple of decades now.
They build in redundant fail safe circuits, in safety related systems.
Toyota took a beating a few years ago from that. Seems their system wasn't so good when examined (even though some of the crashes seem questionable as to cause, like floor mats on accelerator pedals).
 
Toyota took a beating a few years ago from that. Seems their system wasn't so good when examined (even though some of the crashes seem questionable as to cause, like floor mats on accelerator pedals).
It's unusual for Toyota to produce poor quality - but Toyota didn't build the system with the proper fail safes, and with software flaws.
As you point out they took a beating.
 
I had the gauges on my truck shake erratically with a bad connection. Another time the voltage was low and the truck barely started, it took a second for them to work.
 
Wild guess: maybe it has a switching power supply in it. When fed low voltage, it might be pulling high current, higher than normal, in order to feed whatever it feeds. Power out is about same as power in, so low voltage goes to high current. Thing is, it should have power not ok limit, the output transistor rated for it, and the inductor likewise. Bad design ultimately: should realize voltage too low and stay safe--or used better parts.

I suppose it could be a bad tantalum, too much inrush. Or any other marginal component. Still seems like a marginal design.
Yes marginal is a courteous description.

But your likely right. They might take in 12V and PWM out 5V or something. I cluster might not be able to handle a 12.6 to 14.5 V range?
 
Hard lesson learned. I probed the terminals from the front and ruined them. My gauge cluster would suddenly warn me that everything was wrong with the car. All lights went on, and it said “body control module error” “headlight system error”. Thanks to some experienced forum posts here, I figured I destroyed the terminals and caused intermittent connectivity issues. Turns out that was correct.

I went to a junkyard and got an identical connector from another rogue and extracted the wires. Thankfully I worked for 8 years on wiring harnesses, so I know how to disengage the TPA and flex the terminal retention arm out of the way. Funny I know how to do that, but never figured to probe the wires from the back 🤦. I spliced the wires together using solder and heat shrinked wrapping around them. Problem solved. No more connectivity issues.

At least I learned this lesson on this junky car. I hope someone else can learn from my mistake!
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