Project 02 - Spaceship Interface - can't get switch to respond

Hardware The Arduino Starter Kit
1

Hi all,

My first post here on the forums and also a complete newbie to the world of Arduino. Recently I got myself a starter kit which I'm loving, but quickly got stuck on project 2!

TL;DR: Pressing the switch has no effect and even if I bypass the switch with a jumper nothing happens.

Here are some of the things that I've tried out so far:

  • So I've wired up the board exactly as the book shows
  • To eliminate any coding errors I used the code from the Examples section of the app
  • Powered each LED directly on the breadboard, instead of using the Arduino's digital pins to switch it (still use the current limiting resistor) as per @pert
  • Tested that all the LEDs can light up from the Arduino's digital pins by changing the initial code to:
  if (switchstate == LOW) {
    digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
  }
  • Rewired the board to not use pin2 (in case that was the issue)
  • Read all other posts on challenges with project 2

IMG_1542.jpg
IMG_1542.jpg4032×3024 1.07 MB

IMG_1542.jpg
IMG_1542.jpg4032×3024 1.07 MB

2

Oh and you'll notice that I swapped around the power and gnd connections on the switch in the attached image. This was a trial to see if anything different happened (which it didn't). I found this alternative setup on another forum.

3

uuuuuuuuugh!! >:(
Turns out it was the breadboard that's faulty!
After some more investigation, it seems that from around "pin" 19 to 30 of the + of power bus is dead :slightly_frowning_face:

Can anyone advise the process for getting sent a new one?
PS. I hope that this post helps someone in the future

4

Hello MKRMOUSE,

Thank you for sharing the issue with the Arduino community.

If you experience the same problem with the breadboard, please contact Arduino Technical Support as soon as possible and they will assist you with a replacement.

Regards!