Left button not working + charging problem

Hi

I have two problems.

  1. The left button is not working. All other button are functioning correctly. I’ve inspected the soldering and can’t see anything wrong 9compared to the other buttons.

  2. I think we have a defective charging unit. The battery is not charging as far as i can tell. On inserting a USB I notice that the red LED only illuminates intermittently when hold the cable at a particular angle. Occasionally I’ve noticed that the white LED illuminates only occasionally. I assume a poor connection in the socket.

Rob

Can you post some images of your soldering joints (front and back)? You could check the continuity between GND and pin 14 of the ATMega using a multimeter. If the button isn’t pressed there should be a huge resistance value and if the button is pressed the resistance value should be close to 0.

Do you have a small soldering tip at hand? you could try to resolder the USB-socket of the LiPo-charging PCB :slight_smile:

Thanks,

I’ve tested the continuity at GND and pin 14 and there is no drop in resitance when the button is depressed. I’ve also tested the buttons. I can detect a drop inresistance when I depress most of the other buttons, but no change when I depress the left button.

I cant see any obvious damage around the USB-socket of the LiPo-charging PCB so I’m not sure where I’d start.

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@Rob_Pomeroy, thank you for supporting MAKERbuino and welcome to the forum.

I am sorry that you’re experiencing issues with your build.

I’d first go with making your soldering joints a bit better. I can see that they lack a lot of heat which is maybe causing contact problems.

Please, see attached photos with the most critical soldering joints highlighted.

Resolder the highlighted points once more and add some more solder if necessary and keep us updated on your progress.

Thanks!

Cheers,

I have put some additional solder on the left button connectors. Unfortunately, I now have no response at all from the console. The reset does not appear to be working. Could this be because of low power from the battery?

As for the Li-Po charging PCB, The problem seems to be with the USB connector rather than our soldering. I assume I should be seeing the red light during charging? This only happens if I pysically hold the USB plug in the socket. I think I may have to source another PCB and replace it.

When you interrupt the loading process, the console’s memory will be blank so you have to do a hard reset like this:

  1. insert the SD card
  2. turn the console OFF
  3. hold the C button
  4. turn the console ON
  5. release the C button
  6. wait for 30 seconds
    The SD card loader menu should appear.

If this doesn’t help, try removing and then reinserting the SD card a few times and repeating the process above.

This sounds like a defect in li-po charger’s build, we can send you a replacement for free, just PM me your address.

Keep us posted on your progress!

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Hi Albert!

Thanks for this comment relating to the hard reset.

My daughter (8) soldered most of the board. When she was playing around with it, when we made it work, i guess she was interrupting the loading and thus left console display blank. I’ve been nearly de-soldering the whole board’s components. :wink:

Fortunately I found this posting here. Now it’s working again. Thanks!

Maybe the hard reset info should be part of the assembly documentation. I’ve found no such info there.

Cheers from Germany,
f3rdy

Hey @f3rdy,
Welcome to the forum and thank you for supporting MAKERbuino.

I’m glad that this fixed your problem.

This in fact was mentioned in build guide’s chapter #4 (under the yellow section marked “IMPORTANT”)

But it seems it’s not visible enough and we will work on emphasizing it even more.

See you around at the forum :slight_smile:

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Hi Rob,

Looking at your soldering, it does appear that quite a few areas have holes still visible around the legs which suggest that they are not fully soldered. Try to ensure enough solder is applied to fill the holes and is evenly applied. It doesn’t need a big blob on the top, but should kind of melt into the hole. If you have flux, applying a tiny bit can help the solder stick to where it needs to.

If you try to move the charge board, do you see any movement on the pins marked BAT+ and BAT- near the speaker connectors? These both look a little dodgy. Also, try a different cable - you would be surprised how often it is the cables themselves that have a fault - unless you are all iPhone, the chances are one of your mobiles or other devices that use a USB charger will have the same connector.

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