I recently finished the soldering on my Arduino Uno from the Make Your Uno Kit, and yet when I went to test it it didn't work. I've looked through all the instructions to make sure I am not missing anything. One issue that it could be is that the cable isn't data transfer, so I have ordered a cable specifically made for data transfer, yet I wanted to double check with more experienced creators to see if it was something else.
Hi @odin_burks. Please provide a detailed description of what you mean by "it didn't work".
The USB serial adapter heated up, and the On LED would not light up. The board also did not show up as a connection in the Arduino Web Editor.
Here's a picture of the soldering job on the bottom of the board. Additionally, the Arduino brand USB C cable arrived today, and it did not fix the issues regarded previously.
Your soldering looks beautiful, but you didn't trim the leads (the wires coming off the components). You must use a wire cutter to cut those down so they only extend a couple of milimeters past the PCB. If those long leads touch each other, they create short circuits which could definitely cause the symptoms you described.
Before you power the board again, please clip all those leads off just above the solder (be careful not to cut into the solder itself as that might damage the joint). This type of "diagonal cutters" is the best tool for trimming leads:
You don't necessarily need to buy that specific brand. Just get some that have a similar form factor. They are available from most suppliers of electronic parts as well as the online marketplaces (e.g., eBay, Amazon). I have had excellent results from the ulta-cheap ones with the blue handles sold by the Chinese sellers on the marketplaces:
(they print various brand names like "PLATO" on the handles, but I think they are all the same)
Unfortunately, in some cases a short circuit might permanent destroy electical components, so trimming the leads retroactively is not guaranteed to fix the problem. But it is definitely worth a try.
Thank you for the help, after trimming all the components, the board works great. I do feel a bit stupid for making that error, but luckily none of the parts were damaged.
You are welcome. I'm very glad it is working now. Don't worry about the error. This is all about learning and you gained valuable knowledge and still ended up with a working board, so you came out ahead on the deal.
Even in other cases where a "magic smoke incident" occurs and an electrical component is permanently damaged, I think it is best to accept these as an unavoidable part of the electronics learning journey. Even though it is not such an enjoyable experience at the moment you see a component die, and we should avoid that happening if possible, my perspective has always been that as long as I take the time to consider how to avoid it happening again in the future then it still represents progress.
Regards,
Per
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