Hi guys,

We just finished our first panel and are having an interesting problem. I've been soldering for 20 years, but am working with a gentleman who hasn't soldered in 20 years. LOL. I've been able to re-teach him to make clean hot solder joints but in the process, he got a little overzealous with the clippers and cut at least one trace. I was able to patch that and now have half of the board working. The right half behaves as expected (HOLY CRAP IS IT BRIGHT!) and the left half lights dimly but does not flash at all. ALL LEDs have been verified and are lighting.

I have viewed the board in the dark with a camera and verified the IR LEDs are lit (they all are), checked and rechecked all traces (their huge, it's not that hard), checked for solder shorts, and am now scratching my head.

There was one other mistake my partner made on this board, he soldered the chips directly onto the board without sockets. We figured it wouldn't make a big difference, but I wonder now if the heat from the solder gun may have toasted the chip. To test this theory, I carefully desoldered the top left chip (ruining it) and replaced it with a new socket and chip. This didn't resolve the issue. I've considered doing the same for the bottom left chip, but since it didn't make a difference on the top, I'd hate to lose another chip to the process.

Any ideas?

We're going to make another board tomorrow and see if we can't get it right. Will update you then.

Cheers,

J

he got a little overzealous with the clippers and cut at least one trace. I was able to patch that and now have half of the board working. The right half behaves as expected (HOLY CRAP IS IT BRIGHT!) and the left half lights dimly but does not flash at all.

Yikes-- cut traces! *All* of those traces are needed for the board to work correctly, so is there any chance that there's another instance of this kind of problem, or a place where it isn't patched correctly?

There was one other mistake my partner made on this board, he soldered the chips directly onto the board without sockets. We figured it wouldn't make a big difference, but I wonder now if the heat from the solder gun may have toasted the chip.

If you're really using a solder gun, then I'd be surprised if any of this works at all-- those generally deliver *way* too much heat. I'd strongly advise using a soldering iron, of the kind indicated in the instructions.

To test this theory, I carefully desoldered the top left chip (ruining it) and replaced it with a new socket and chip. This didn't resolve the issue. I've considered doing the same for the bottom left chip, but since it didn't make a difference on the top, I'd hate to lose another chip to the process.

Desoldering components to see if they're "bad" is the number one way that boards get permanently fouled up, in our experience. 90% of problems on these boards are due to bad or missing solder connections, backwards components, missing components, or components in the wrong locations. Failures of the components themselves are by comparison quite rare (unless you're really using a solder *gun*).