Help Troubleshooting Initial Power Up


 

Jason Allen

New member
ok, thought I would start a new thread that could helpfully help others as I'm helped.

I've finished nearly all of my PCB work, my button board is soldered, power hooked up, etc.

The remaining work to be done is:

1) Hook up probe
2) Hook up fan

I've flashed optiloader and HeaterMeter code. I'm doing a standalone HeaterMeter without router.

When I plug my 12v source into the PCB, nothing really happens. The only indicator that I can see is when I crank up my potentiometer I can see boxes on the LCD show up.

A few questions:

1) Should I expect the LED to light up when adding power?
2) I've done a few voltage checks on the board, looks like LCD is getting power (5v), fan output is showing 12v...how should I even begin testing this? I have a simple multimeter with voltage, continuity, and resistance.
3) Can I plug in my FTDI cable to see output from the Serial Output? If so, what Baud Rate should I use?

That's a good start...any other troubleshooting thoughts would be great.

Thanks,
Jason
 
make sure all your diodes are going the right direction.

Use the Continuity checker and follow the schemantic from component to component, you should get a beep Example: The blower Put one probe on number 5 pin of the Atmega and the other probe on the resister R3(Beep)Then put the probes on the other side of the resister and the next connection at the IRL510, and you should hear a beep if your multimeter has a beep for continuity.

Continue in that fasion and check all connections, you can also check to make ground is grounded, by putting one probe on ground and checking all the ground connections on the schemantic to make sure they are going to ground and also check all positive(5v,3.3v) while having the probe on ground to see if you get any beeps.

Also if you are seeing boxes then the lcd is not getting info, so pay make sure all your connection from the Atmega and the shift resister and lcd are good (pin to pin)

Did you flash the Atmega chip?

If all is ok with above then im at a loss as to what could cuase it not to work. If te Atmega has the code on it and all the connections are correct it should turn on as soon as power is applied.

I hope this helps ya
John
 
If you were able to flash the HeaterMeter stuff it sounds like the ATmega is hooked up correctly. When you turn it on the LED should blink twice quickly, the LCD backlight should come on. An FTDI connected should show serial output at 115200 baud. If all that is working check the connections to the shift register, which should have continuity from their input pins to the ATmega and from their outputs to the LCD. Verify it is inserted with the correct orientation.
 
Did you flash the Atmega chip?

Yep, Atmega was flashed and I was upload the schematic. At least within the Arduino IDE it gave me no errors and transferred data.

Does the LED flash shortly after powering on?

No flash, LED does nothing.

If you were able to flash the HeaterMeter stuff it sounds like the ATmega is hooked up correctly. When you turn it on the LED should blink twice quickly, the LCD backlight should come on. An FTDI connected should show serial output at 115200 baud. If all that is working check the connections to the shift register, which should have continuity from their input pins to the ATmega and from their outputs to the LCD. Verify it is inserted with the correct orientation.

I just get garbled output from the serial output via FTDI.

I believe one problem is related to the LCD getting backlight power. I am expecting to get a +5v reading at the 15 pin, but nothing. Can someone confirm that nothing should be in R7? Or should I be putting a wire in R7. I'm guessing this lack of 5v would also explain the LED doing nothing.
 
Should I see a voltage when placing the multimeter between pin 15 and pin 16 on the LCD output header?

When I go from pin 15 to Q2 I see 5v at 2 of the 3 pins, but not on the 3rd. The 3rd pin of Q2 is what seems to trace to pin 16 of the LCD output header.

I can also see 5v between pin 15 and R13. Something just feels weird about pin 16 of the LCD output header.
 
That implies it is running, but you probably have the wrong baud rate or encoding on one side or the other.

Is your 5v regulator putting out power?

How do I check the encoding? At one point in messing with the baud rate, I as able to see "3", "3", "3".... that seemed weird too.

I believe the 5v regulator is as I can measure 5v between pin 1 and pin 2 of the LCD output header.
 
The "default" encoding for most stuff is 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity with XON/OFF flow control... your client should set that. Make sure you are at 115200 baud on whatever you are using to connect via FTDI... (I use putty typically, but there are many alternatives).
 
If the green LED will flash twice immediately after powering on. If that doesn't happen, then it won't work.

dave
 
Should I see a voltage when placing the multimeter between pin 15 and pin 16 on the LCD output header?
You will most likely not, depending on your multimeter because there is intermittent ground. Pin 15 should read 5V when referenced against ground (i.e. not against pin 16). If you have nothing in R7, then it doesn't hurt to put a piece of wire in it. It is supposed to have a teeny trace built into it but it is pretty small so it might have been flubbed by the fab so just solder in a piece of wire.

And something is screwy because you should get the serial data even if the LCD doesn't start. Also as others have mentioned, the LED should blink twice on startup so if you're not seeing that, check the polarity on that as well.
 
And something is screwy because you should get the serial data even if the LCD doesn't start. Also as others have mentioned, the LED should blink twice on startup so if you're not seeing that, check the polarity on that as well.

I've noticed on LEDs, the "big" side when you look inside is typically the cathode, which goes to ground. Then you don't need to try to remember which wire was longer, or which one pos/neg had the notch in the side of the LED.
 
ok, thanks for all the replies...

Major brain-fart on my side. As I'm mowing the lawn tonight I realized what my problem is, or at least the main problem. When I got my FTDI cable and hooked it up, I uploaded a simple sketch to verify everything worked and it did. It was late and I didn't want to mess with HeaterMeter libraries and the sort, so I went to bed. Somehow I got side tracked and guess what...I'm still running some simple sketch, not the HeaterMeter software...blah. I'm guessing said simple sketch is what is outputting, "3", "3", "3"....

Let me see if I can get this sketch uploaded. Sorry to waste everyone's time.
 
Sweet! Getting closer.

Just uploaded the sketch and I get "No Pit Probe" which makes sense because I don't have a pit probe hooked up!
 
Your not, just close, you have a working heatermeter. Congrats on figuringit out

Thanks John!

Got the probe hooked up and now I'm reading a temp and showing fan speed.

My button doesn't seem to be doing anything though. I'll have to do some forum searches. Very cool stuff.
 
Does the orientation of the button matter when inserted into the button board?

If so, how can I identify the orientation on the button?
 
The button has 3 sets of pins(3 on each side). If you look at the button two of the sets look closer then the other one is to the pins in the middle. The button board also has the same layout as the button. You can use the multimeter to check the button board by placing the probe on leads to the board and if its on the right setting it will read wa h of the resisters when you hit the button. So if you hit the button to the left it should read, something like 4.7k and so on.
 
To add to what John said, the button should be installed on the side that has the silkscreen outline on it. It shouldn't fit into the holes upside down, but it can fit backwards.

Glad you figured out your problem with the software! Sometimes it's the simple things, eh?
 
After I came home this morning I made another board using the same Pcb and it worked fine.

I had it hooked up to my multimeter and when I pressed the button up, it reads .677k on my meter, to the right .387k and down 2.205k and to the left 4.65k

Im pretty sure you made the same mistake, i made on my first time soldering the 4-way button and put it in backwards
 

 

Back
Top