Hi everyone.
I sometimes find some time to play with Arduino. So, the last time I've been using it was 6 months ago, I ended up with successful connection of an XBee module to an Arduino and making it talk with a computer. Then I stopped for a while because of lack of time. But yesterday I decided to continue my learning. And I was upset to find out that I can no longer upload anything to my Arduino :(. I just took it again, as I always did, connected it to a computer and tried to upload a blink sketch on it and received a "well-known" error:
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51
After 2 days of googling and looking through this forum I couldn't help my board at all :(. I asked for absolutely the same board my friend and it works just fine! I decided that the planets arranged in a row and that's why my arduino feels bad, when another disappointment was waiting for me: the XBee modules do not work anymore :(. Specifically, there are 2 xbee modules: one connected to a computer, another one - to an Arduino through the XBee regulator. I tried to configure the one which was always connected to a computer with an x-ctu software and it seems to work properly. But when I connect another XBee to the computer, the x-ctu software cannot read anything from it, the signals do not go and so on. Moreover, the xbee module itself becomes so hot (while connected to the computer), that I can hardly touch it!
I just want to ask: can anyone explain me what on earth could have happened with the devices during last 6 monts..? Any ways of diagnostics is welcome.
Thanks a lot for any help.
This are my characteristics:
Win XP, Arduino IDE 17 or 21 (both do not work), Arduino Deicimila, ATmega 168.
In six months your PC could have changed a lot too (upgrades etc)
I would check my Arduino with another PC first or reinstall the IDE and drivers. I recently had to remove and reinstall my UNO driver without a clear cause, but it was abround the same day as some MS updates (win7/64). Could also be something else I did that period too.
Have you checked that you selected the right board? Is always good for avr_dude messages...
the fact you got "avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51"
means that the board responded so the USB cable seems to be right...
just a few thoughts
For those who know more about this out there (and I don't mean to imply that this is the OP's issue - I highly doubt it):
Have they figured out a way to stop the "tin whisker" growth issue that I remember reading about plaguing lead-free solder joints (that would ultimately cause shorts)? I think it was mostly an issue with the internal connections on ICs (ie, very close tolerances)...
madworm:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,23111.0.html
Thanks for the link. I am wondering if anything has changed in the past 3 years, though...
I'm reading over a PDF "slideshow" presentation (August 2011) on the NASA site referenced in the old Arduino forum link that madworm posted:
https://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/
In short - I'm feeling fairly bummed over this situation. Several things are sticking out to me based on the document:
- Lead-free solder was foisted on the world by the EU based on nothing more than pure uneducated BS about the hazards of lead in our environment.
- Most lead in the environment comes from car batteries - which are RoHS exempt.
- Total lead usage in the electronics industry per year - worldwide - amounts to an infinitesimal amount compared to car batteries.
- The fears which sparked the idea of "lead-free" electronics make no sense when you understand how lead interacts (or fails to interact) with the environment.
- The RoHS regulations are costing industries insane amounts of money to convert (with no end in sight).
- Lead-free solders have problems with wetting, voids, cracks - you name it, it's ugly.
- It takes a higher temperature to flow such solders - leading to issues with PCBs.
- Such solder joints made with lead-free solder are weaker under high stress.
- There isn't any true replacement for lead-based solders yet; several of the various formulations for pb-free solders so far are patented, even (driving up costs).
- Tin whiskers aren't small - they can grow large - and quickly (in hours in some cases) - they show a case of wire-wrap posts (p42 - the posts were coated with a lead-free tin-based coating) with visible whiskers causing shorts!
I must also say that my earlier speculation about issues with bonded-wire interconnects on ICs was wrong; such interconnects are performed via ultrasonic welding - not soldering, and involve gold, copper and/or aluminum (there is an issue called "purple plague" when gold is bonded to aluminum under heat).
In short - it seems the whole RoHS directive has caused, and continues to cause a worldwide "upheaval" in the electronics industry (and to a smaller extent, the electronics hobbyist), that is costing a lot of money, and honestly doesn't do a damn thing for the environment. Lead doesn't contaminate ground water in metalic form; it just sits there on the ground (actually, it binds to other compounds in the soil). It can't be vaporized by normal fire (not a high enough temperature), so the concerns about lead-vapor in the atmosphere from the "recycling" operations in poor countries is likely unfounded (though there are tons of other things to be concerned by such operations - I'm not trying to make light of them, just that lead vapor isn't one of the problems). If such was an issue, there would be elevated levels of lead in the bloodstreams of electronics-industry workers (from solder vapors) - when there isn't.
Now - I am not so sure that the OP's Arduino -didn't- die a premature death due to lead-free regulations on electronics (check out that image on page 42; if it can happen there, it could surely happen elsewhere). Whether it actually did or didn't, I don't know - but this whole issue just makes me a bit furious. Because of it, we're ending up with unreliable electronic assemblies that fail randomly, cost excess money to repair or replace, force obsolescence.
There's a good reason why 'life supporting' equipment is exempt from RoHS.
I also tried to use lead-free SAC solder, I even got a new regulated soldering station for it (which is just great). But I HATE THE SAC SOLDER. In hindsight it was a sizable waste of money.
I just finished the paper (has some lunch in-between - heh) - a few other things to note from it:
- Lead-free alternatives are likely to be more environmentally harmful than leaded versions (there wasn't an explanation on this - but I suspect because for most items that would fail due to being manufactured with pb-free solder and having tin-whiskers - people would just throw away the item and buy another, only to have it likely fail again - with the cycle continuing; ie - waste of material resources, energy, and issues with disposal).
- There's something called "tin plague" that is similar to the "purple plague" (causing weakness and whatnot - it looks like "rot").
- The mechanism of tin-whisker growth is not known - despite study and research over 60 years.
- Tin-whiskers have been found to grow through conformal coatings.
- Tin-whiskers may or did lead to the Toyota "unintended acceleration" issue via shorts in the sensor potentiometer (interestingly, this is the first I've read of this - was this ever discussed in the media, and how tin-whiskers might be responsible for any number of electronic device failures over the years?).
- Tin whiskers have caused failure of a component at a nuclear power plant.
- Tin whiskers have "caused the recall of several models of pacemaker".
- No mitigation method has been found to be 100% - except for the addition of 3% lead.
You know - I am all for caring for the environment and such, but when changes such as this can potentially lead to disastrous consequences (automobile accidents, medical device failure, nuclear power plant issues) - not to mention all the other problems, economic and environmental harm harm, it certainly doesn't make sense to implement them based on unfounded fears.
Lead paint was one thing: Kids were ingesting it; it was on their toys, and it was in the home as a "flakey" substance (as paint aged). Electronic solder, though? Most people (and certainly kids) never even see it, let alone get it in their mouths. If you use leaded solder, you shouldn't put it in your mouth, and you should wash your hands after handling it - but that's about it. You can't be poisoned by lead from "solder fumes" - the solder never gets hot enough to vaporise the lead (the lead never reaches its boiling point - besides, if it did - it wouldn't work well for soldering, now would it?). You shouldn't breath in the fumes from the flux, of course (and acid-core flux is nasty - it can make your eyes burn like an onion) - so use common sense and have proper ventilation.
I just wonder how much of our electronics problems (devices failing, intermittent issues that can't be traced, etc) - are being caused by tin-whisker growth due to RoHS compliance and lead-free solder practices/products? As our cars become increasingly "drive-by-wire", are we going to see more incidents like what happened to Toyota? What about commercial aircraft? Medical devices?
Heck - given the images shown in that presentation of tin-whiskers, I'm now beginning to wonder if a short that happened to my computer motherboard to the case wasn't caused by whisker-growth from the solder joints? I'll never know, of course - but I think next time something like that occurs to me, I'm going to check things over with my microscope and see what I can see...
I've lived in houses with soldered copper plumbing basically all my life, over half a century. Had my blood tested a few years ago, the lead level was effectively zero.
(I do my own plumbing when I can, and I always use some old Kester 60/40 rosin core electrical solder that a friend gave me decades ago, it's too large for most electronics use. Works great.)
Yes I am afraid that the whole RoSH / lead free movement was started by well meaning but ultimately ignorant environmentalists.
Ever though why car batteries are exempt from being lead free? They use several orders of magnitude more lead than electronics but then without them there would be no car industry and the bureaucrats couldn't get away with that.
When my wife and I bought our house, we insisted on a few things:
- No HOA
- Block construction
- Copper wiring
- Copper plumbing
I'll never regret any of those choices, though it relegated us to the "pre-owned ghetto" (our house was built in 1973). There's no way we could've afforded the above list in the only other fashion it's available today, which is custom construction. I "worry" more about the possibility of asbestos in the popcorn textured ceiling than I do about lead from the plumbing solder...
I keep a roll of thin 60/40 solder I got from Radio Shack 20 years ago; I'm planning on buying a another roll or two from a local electronics surplus outlet I frequent (Apache Reclamation and Electronics). Not only do they have the old stuff in rolls (really large rolls, if you want it!) - they also have it in bar form, as well as solder paste. If you're really old school, you can even get one of those large "copper slug dagger"-style soldering irons, provided you have a torch to keep it hot...
cr0sh:
When my wife and I bought our house, we insisted on a few things:
- No HOA
- Block construction
- Copper wiring
- Copper plumbing
Tell me they're not using something other than copper for wiring again...
Most lead in the environment comes from car batteries
I thought it was Thomas Midgley we had to thank for that one.