Hello,
I've just assembled my Peggy 2.2 board and wanted to know if it's working. What's the correct procedure ? I've soldered 1 LED only, on position D0.
Thanks in advance
Daniel

After soldering another LED both of them are lit after turning on, and that makes me wonder if there's another tutorial just like the *awesome* manual that came with the Peggy explaining what to do for people like me lol
That's my suggestion
Now I'm off to solder 625 LEDs and find out why the 3 I've already solded are so dim. Trimpots not set correctly maybe ?

If your LEDs are lighting up -- at all-- almost everything is working. You definitely need to adjust the trimpots, the factory setting on those is on the low end.

I've soldered a line of LEDs now and they lit when I turn them on, but don't animate. Question: How do I browse through the pre-programmed animations ? (I'm basically flipping the switch and pressing ON, other buttons dont seem to work.)

As it says in the online documentation (and on page 5 of the assembly instructions), the built-in program just turns on all of the LEDs uniformly. The default program is intended to make it easy for people who are just making a static LED sign, where the LED locations determine what is displayed.

There is room in the memory to add a few extra animations in the default program. We have not thus far because (1) no one had really asked for it and (2) if we were to add others, they would probably look a bit strange for folks with things like "JOE'S BAR" spelled out on their Peggies. So... if we were to a few additional animations, what would you suggest?

After all the soldering I forgot the text on page 5, my bad. About the factory examples onchip, I have no original suggestions other than a simple "blink all LEDs" for a simple strobe effect.

I've been soldering a bit more and decided to turn the Peggy on to check the results, and got this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdgx/3863970712/

The first, second, and 24th rolls are blinking for like a milisecond, and only the last roll is actually lit. Another curious thing is that only the last 6 or so LEDs on the right really have an intense light, and the others are dim.

This time I'm REALLY clueless, help!

Thanks

>The first, second, and 24th rolls are blinking for like a milisecond, and only the last roll is actually lit. Another curious thing is that only the last 6 or so LEDs on the right really have an intense light, and the others are dim.

I'm not quite sure what you're describing here. Is this a momentary condition at turn on, or something that's continuously repeating? One thing that you might try is hooking up a wire (excess lead from an LED) across location L2 on the board.

(In any case, stopping to debug repeatedly while soldering the LEDs in is probably *not* the best procedure....)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdgx/3864774366/

Constantly repeating. I've posted a video to show what's happening. Nootice that the lower row works but there's a dif on light intensity, and top rows blink for a ms or so (camera wont capture it)

Sounds like your CPU isn't running, or is stalling at startup. Do you have any idea what could have changed since your earlier tests, where it sounded like it was working OK?

Did you try adding the wire across L2?

It's also possible that low batteries could cause this condition. (It might be good to keep a spare "brand new" set of batteries as a backup to swap in for only a few moments if you ever wonder if behavior is due to low batteries.)

I took the board to a PRO. He found faulty solder joints and bended pins on the led drivers, among other things. He blamed me (duh) and also complained about the sockets and suggested something like this one, but 'golden' :
http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/prodimages/IS314.jpg

I did not try the wiring on L2 and gave him the board, LEDs, and manual. I'm new to this and completely clueless, I'll wait for him to check/resolder.

I'd like to thank you for helping me out ! I'll post updates here, soon

Ok, I need to replace the CPU and LED drivers because some pins bended on the sockets. Question: how do I buy a new CPU to replace the one I have, and also the 4 LED drivers ?

A repair kit for Peggy 2, including the full chip set, is available on the Evil Mad Science garage sale page:
http://evilmadscience.com/component/content/article/98

Hello. I've bought the replacement parts for my board and replaced the chips with the new ones but I'm still having the same problem: rows won't light up, and blink for a ms and restart. After sliding my finger on the board I noticed those rows lighting up, and recorded a new video:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdgx/4012450394/

I didn't try "wiring to L2" procedure, I don't know exactly how to do it, is there a picture or diagram (or video) available somewhere for me to take a look ?

Finally, if nothing works, can I send the board back or to someone to take a look for me ? I'm getting desperate. Thank You

I didn't try "wiring to L2" procedure, I don't know exactly how to do it, is there a picture or diagram (or video) available somewhere for me to take a look ?

Location L2 is on the lower left side of the circuit board, next to L1. It consists of two holes separated by about 1 cm, and the label is directly between the two holes. To wire it up, take a piece of wire-- and a clipped-off lead of an LED or resistor works just fine as that wire --and bend it into a "U" shape, like a regular staple, and put the two ends of the wire into the two holes of location L2. Hold it in place with your finger while you turn on the board, and see if it helps. If it does help, then you should solder that wire in place.

I've wired L2 and it works ! There's only 1 column that's not working, what can it be ? Thank you very very much !