I bought a couple of cheap clone/knockoff UNOs from eBay. One of them powers up, and runs the blink sketch, but will not connect to the computer. I verified it's not the 328P chip, as I swapped it and the board still has the same symptoms. Also, the power LED is extremely bright (as seen in the pic, compared to the pin 13 LED), which seems like a short indicator to me. Interestingly, after I swapped the chip, it connected to the computer a couple of times and allowed me to upload a sketch, but then stopped. I've done everything computer-side, like restart, change USB cable, etc. The other board connects fine.
I received a refund on the one that doesn't work, so I'm not out money, and at worst, I'm up one 328P chip. I'm curious if there's anything I can check? I don't see any broken solder joints, but I might go around with my iron just in case.
Looks like a strange board layout. If I got the label correct the power LED gets twice the current of the pin 13 LED because two resistors of the 1k bar are used in parallel.
As the board doesn't show up on the PC I suspect the ATmega16U2 instead of the ATmega328p. Check the soldering there (it's the tiny chip behind the USB connector. At least on the posted picture the soldering doesn't look professional.
Too bad, this looks like counterfeit and it is most likely infringes on copyright and by buying this you not only support the criminals you undermine Arduino efforts, then you have the cheek to come on Arduino forums to cry a river
Please don't make inappropriate assumptions. I ordered clones, not counterfeits. (Though, you're correct that this is obviously a counterfeit.) Can't help that this is what they sent. And I'm not "crying a river"; I'm taking the opportunity to learn. Not everyone has the cash to pay for the real deal, as much as I'd like to. If you want, I'll link the ebay ad, but I really don't want to give them advertisement, because I feel like they weren't on the up-and-up (there were more issues with my purchase than I've stated here).
Wow, good eyes! I think I see what you're talking about. I had to look under a magnifying glass to see the 102 (1K?) resistor "bar". And I think I see where the top left 2 pins on the bar appear to be shorted. I tried to find more about the "bar", trying "smd resistor bar" and "smd multi resistor", but found nothing. What are they actually called?
I'll take a look at the 16U2. And yeah, the soldering is pretty shoddy.
Seeing the positioning of the power and analogue headers makes me feel better about my ability to line headers up. I wonder if a shield will plug in with headers that skewed?
I have some good clones. I was looking for some "throwaways" in case my latest project fries one. I'm not quite confident enough with my skill/knowledge. I'd rather fry $10 than $20.
This was my first Arduino purchase on eBay, and the interaction colored my perception negatively. I'd ordered 2 clone UNOs, that included cables and for some reason, pins. They only sent me cables and pins. After I went through the return process, they sent me 2 UNOs, but only after I would cancel the return. One was a working clone, and this nonworking counterfeit. I reached out to them requesting a replacement, waited 3 days, and reached out again. They just refunded the amount for the UNO without response. So, lesson learned.
I'm sure it would stress a shield. I was thinking about resoldering the one header, but wanted to see if I could get it working first.
