New build not working


 
M

Mathew Valiakulathil

New member
Just finished all the soldering and I flashed the SD card with the required software.

My first bootup gave me weird characters on the LCD screen. I resoldered some pins from the rPi connector to the Heatermeter board and now all i get is solid boxes on the first line of the LCD screen. I have adjusted the potentiometer and still all that appears are the boxes. Any feedback or help would be greatly appreciated.

I have attached pictures of the board below.

http://imgur.com/R8vlRFh,29cru8m,57PS25a#0


http://imgur.com/R8vlRFh,29cru8m,57PS25a#2
 
i had this problem before, and I have been soldering for YEARS... everyone here told me to just reflow it, and i was pfft, I know what i'm doing, there is no way... well, I did it, it worked... give that a shot? make sure all the holes are good an soldered, but not too much, check for solder bridges as well. best of luck.
 
YES, REFLOW SOLDER! Remove the ATMega chip and reflow solder to every pin, you should get it hot enough for solder to flow to the other side of the board and solder should lay down like a nice round bead. You should reflow the rPi header as well from what I see in the pics... Prob a good idea to reflow from one end of the board to the other....
 
I can see numerous pads that dont have enough solder or not enough heat. You want to keep feeding each solder joint until the pad is completely covered, remove the solder before removing the iron. You want the joint to look like a pyramid. If you see a ball of solder then you did not heat the pad and the component at same time.

On the lcd you almost have what looks like q bridge on the 5v line. Also, the shift register a couple of pads need more solder.

The tc amp looks ok.
 
I resoldered a whole bunch of points that was recommended by you guys with a 60/40 solder. The one I used previously was too thick and unwieldy to get in certain areas.

The unit now turns on with 5V and 12V and the LCD display reads:

Pit: 20 degrees F [100%].

All I have connected to it is the USB power. According to the Heatermeter wiki it should say "No pit probe connected" upon bootup. Just wanted to see if what I was seeing is okay or not. Thanks for the help in advance!
 
Do you have THERMOCOUPLE selected as the probe type for Probe 0, with mV/s set to 5 and Offset set to 0?

Did you do the SMD work on the TC amp yourself? Is the 100K resistor in circuit and the 10K pullup resistor removed? (for the pit probe, they are right behind the TC jack, the ones that stand up)

At least you brought it to life, now it seems you need to iron out your issues with the TC amp.
 
The 100k resistor is in and I realized the 10k pullup resistor was installed. I removed it and powered the unit and the "no pit probe" momentarily appeared followed by the "Pit: 23 degrees F [100%]".

I have not done any configuration for Probe 0. All I've done for the build so far is finish soldering and power the unit.
 
So you're making some progress, maybe... lol
You should connect up to the HM web interface and load the Configuration page and make sure probe 0 is set to Thermocouple, with 5 mV/s and 0 offset.
 
Alright I changed the settings as you recommended and now it shows " No Pit Probe". Definitely making progress.

Now I'm trying to configure the wifi on my Heatermeter to my home network. I have to hook up to my router via LAN cable since I do not has a USB mouse or keyboard. The changes I'm making are not being saved to the SD card. Since my LAN and Wifi are on the same subnet the Wifi interface never comes up.

I'm going to try a different SD card and see if that helps.
 
make sure you are clicking on save and apply or you can click on the red colored unsaved changes on the top of the page on the right and then save and apply on the next page. You then wait a minute or two and then unplug the cat5 cable and also restart the Heatermeter and you may need to restart your router also. If everything is correct you will see the IP address on the Heatermeter display.
 
The new SD card did the trick and allowed me to save the changes. I am now able to connect to it via my home Wifi.

I connected up ET-732 probes into all three ports. If I slide the jack all the way in it doesn't read anything but if I leave it in halfway the jack picks up the temperature.

I think I may have to resolder the jacks. Any other suggestions?

BTW Thank you guys for all the help!
 
the plugs are too long on the ET-732's, there's nothing wrong with your soldering. You have to do exactly what you have done, don't plug them in ALL the way.
 
So I have everything set up and I'm currently doing my first test run. What I'm noticing is that the fan is still staying on even though the set point temp of 225 has been reached. I have not made any changes to the PID settings. That doesn't seem right to me.

I'll post a picture of the test run as soon as it's done.
 
WHat are your blower Min, Max and Startup max values? Does the blower status bar on the web interface still show the blower as on, or is the blower speed showing 0% while it is still blowing?
 
Just bumping this to the top. I have definitely wired the CAT5 to the blower correctly. The wire I am using has 568B wiring on the Heatermeter end. I am only using the blue wire for the blower ground and white/blue for the blower power.

The most recent image of the board is below

COMPONENT SIDE

xXF5sEg.jpg


SOLDER SIDE

fYg2f8W.jpg
 
You need to really clean off the flux on the board. Home depot has electronic comtact cleaner that will remove the flux. Get a tooth brush and spray and scrub.

Also you have some solder pads exposed still, add solder and also check all the solder pads. I can see some pads around the atmega chip need solder and your probe jacks. The others just reheat and add a little solder.
 
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