Custom ESP32 Board worked once then broke

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Hi all!

I made a ESP32-WROVER devboard and soldered it all together. I then put the typical blink sketch on it (see below) using Arduino IDE, and the Olimex BB-CH340T to program it. That worked fine, running off a battery, and then I used a cold soldering iron tip to show somebody how I soldered it, took the battery off, and walked down the stairs with it. I then tried to connect the battery again and it did not work. I have since been trying to fix it and nothing I do seems to have any effect.

I managed to connect it to my computer a few times, where it says this ( rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x3 (DOWNLOAD_BOOT(UART0/UART1/SDIO_REI_REO_V2)) ) even when I have not pulled any of the IO0, IO2 pins low. I then managed to use esptool to erase the flash and flashed a new copy of the blink sketch onto it. It still does not work, and I cannot seem to get it to boot into SPI_FLASH mode at all. My schematic and PCB are attached, as are pictures of the board. A video of the board working is here.

Any help at all would be much appreciated as I have been banging my head against the wall for a few hours.

What I am even more confused about is what could possibly have changed from when it worked to when it all of a sudden didn't.

#include <Arduino.h>

#define LED 2

void setup() {
    pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
    digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
    delay(500);
    digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
    delay(500);
}

pcb-1
pcb-12339×1654 254 KB

schematic-1
schematic-12339×1654 123 KB

PXL_20240405_155610868
PXL_20240405_1556108681920×2560 340 KB

2

Sorry, looks like a lot of bad soldering.
You're trying, I'm sure, but that needs a lot of "re-work".

3

+1

rework your soldering: remove bridges, check for not soldered connections etc. Use a lens/magnifying glass/whatever to check. Use the correct temperature. - you have ~ 4 bridges and 6 bad solder joints on the esp alone ... and IMO you did not use flux.

4

Adafruit and Sparkfun have soldering tutorials that include pictures to show you what good and bad solder joints look like.

I see a lot of bad ones, so you do need some practice.

5

Maybe a pull up resistor on the EN pin ?

6

Thank you all! I will practice soldering.

7

when you are at it, don't use that fat greasy stuff that covers your board - that's not flux for electronics but for soldering copper sheets.

8

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