greetings,

I just completed initial soldering of the micro-readerboard kit. The instructions were excellent, by the way. When I turned it on, I noticed that one of the segments was not lighting. I'm new to this, so I assumed I make a bad solder joint. I checked them all as well as I could visually, and noticed I'd missed one. I soldered it. Turning the unit back on, after replacing the batteries, the same segment was out. So it probably wasn't that joint.

At this point, I don't really know what I need to check.

Also, I'm getting holiday messages without the jumper wire installed.

Did I do something wrong soldering? Heat damage? Any suggestions welcomed.

Thanks!

You probably have another bad solder joint that's disguised as a good one. Check the technical reference page ( http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/mrb2ref ) for a list of which segment corresponds to which pin of the chip. As far as the holiday messages go, that sometimes happens if you are holding the device when you turn it on. If all else fails, add a little wire between the "DP" pin (pin 12) and where the red wire is connected at pin 20-- that will turn off the holiday messages for sure.

Thanks for the suggestions. I removed the solder and resoldered the relevant pin, but the segment's still out. Thanks for the link to the pin-outs. Most excellent document it is. I wonder if I cracked the leg bending it out. In any case, I'm having fun with it and appreciate your assistance.

Thanks!

. I removed the solder and resoldered the relevant pin, but the segment's still out. Thanks for the link to the pin-outs. Most excellent document it is. I wonder if I cracked the leg bending it out.

Could be, I suppose; haven't seen that happen before. Well, we've seen segments not lighting, but they almost always get fixed by touching up the solder. So, I suppose it's possible that you've damaged a pin on the chip or LED. You could test each independently by disconnecting them and seeing if you can get the LED segment to light up by touching a wire between the pin and another segment that does work, or test the pin (similarly) by touching a wire between it and a known working pin of the LED.