I am using a nano to control several LED strips. I can plug it up to my computer and upload whatever code and it works perfect. As soon as I unplug the USB, the lights freeze and the L light on the nano starts flashing extremely rapidly. I plug it back to the computer and everything resumes.
The lights are being powered by a separate 5v power supply, not the arduino.
This started happening after two things touched (not sure what) and some smoke came out.
I REALLY do not want to have to get a new arduino and redo everything. It's all soldered together and it's quite a big project using most of the arduino's pins. Any ideas I could test?
I did get it working for a while without being plugged up to the computer, but I'm not sure how and it's back to not working again.
Edit: I measured pin 13 since that's what the L light is supposed to show and it is getting a steady 0.1 volts. Only when not plugged into the computer. And the 5v pin on the arduino is only giving 3 volts for some reason.
Here is a picture. Hard to show much of anything with this much going on but it's easy to see how a short happened.
Please take a few minutes and read How to get the best out of this forum. After that, please show us a schematic of your circuit. Without that, folk could guess until the cows come home about what MIGHT be the problem.
Since smoke has come out, also include a clear, well lit, hi-res picture of your board so that there's some chance the component(s) that have expired can be identified.
I am using a computer power supply since these lights are in my computer and it supplies both 5v and 12v. So the 12v wires are powering the arduino while the 5v wires are powering the lights.
I wouldn't doubt it if the regulator fried and it's in a loop. When it happened I got a message on my computer saying there was a surge and I was unable to use my USB port until after a restart.
I measured pin 13 after I read that it is represented by the L light and it is giving 0.1 volts despite nothing in the program telling it to turn on, and the 5v pin is outputting 3v.
You got it! I supplied 5v through the 5v pin and everything works now. This isn't "recommended" but I'm not seeing a problem and it's better than redoing my whole project.
