4.2.4 Build problems


 
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NeilHeuer

TVWBB Fan
Hey guys just fired up my new build of 4.2.4 and its not working. I powered it with the 5v usb just in case. Here is the problem: I get no display. I have the Green and Yellow led's blinking when I adjust the potentiometer to the lowest setting it appears that the blinking stops. Thats about all I got in terms of behavior. Any thoughts where to begin? For some reason this build seemed a lot hard for me than the 4.0 I built a while back. The solder seemed more sloppy and didn't take as well. I don't know why but I remember the first one seeming smoother... Maybe I just forgot :)

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,

Neil
 
So I noticed some build up on the potentiometer and I didn't clip the bottom leads through the board. So that didn't fix the problem but it let me see a blinking black bars on the display but they are still faded.

Neil
 
John Bostwick said:
pictures of the board would help
Click to expand...

IMG_7379.JPG


IMG_7378.JPG
 
Sounds like you've got a 5V or 3.3V short to ground. The reason things are blinking is because the power supply is overheating and turning off, then it cools off enough to flip back on momentarily and it blinks stuff. Measure the resistance between +5V and GND and 3.3V (VCC)and GND. If either is low (less than thousands of ohms), that's where you need to start looking.
 
NeilHeuer said:
Gosh thanks! I don't know how I screwed that up! I hope to finally fix this tomorrow!

Thanks a lot guys much appreciated!

Neil
Click to expand...

It happens, even after building lots of them, I still make a mistake soldering stuff on. Luckily, its just the caps, as their solder points are fairly close together you can hit both at same time, to free the cap off the boards. Be careful though, caps don't like lots of heat.
 
OK guys I replaced the capacitors this morning and unfortunately its not better :(

I have the top two led's blinking rapidly and little to nothing on the LCD. I think something is still shorting out but faster now? Any other things that look incorrect?

Thanks!

Neil
 
your best bet is to get some solder wick and use it on most solder joints that are close to other joints. the idea is not to remove all the solder, but to clean up the joints a bit. This usually helps removing solder bridges
 
John Bostwick said:
your best bet is to get some solder wick and use it on most solder joints that are close to other joints. the idea is not to remove all the solder, but to clean up the joints a bit. This usually helps removing solder bridges
Click to expand...

Success! I had a bunch of the circled points cleaned up but I think the culprit was the one you had on the bottom left. I have NO idea why this build came out so sloppy. Perhaps it was iron temperature but my first heater meter seemed to come together much cleaner. Of course it was obvious my head was more in the game on the first one since the capacitors were all backwards.

thanks for all the awesome help. Now I need to get probes and the USB to Wifi device installed and see if I can access it via the browser!

Thanks again!

Neil
 
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