hello everyone.
I Just burn 2 ATmega16U2-MU microcontroller on Arduino Mega. And I want to Replace it.
but as you know this chips is not cheap. it is almost half price of the board.
Are there any cheaper alternatives?
I will take your advice thanks!
You could get a USBasp programmer and program the Arduino MEGA through the ICSP header. If you have Amazon Prime you can get one with one day shipping for $9.99.
You can get them cheaper but if they ship from the Far East it can take weeks and most only have a 10-pin cable and need a 6-pin adapter to connect to the Arduino.
a 16u2 should cost under $4 from standard distributors like digikey or microchipDirect.
Another option is to get a USB to serial adapter module (the most common using the FTDI FT232R or WCH CH340). You can connect it to pins 0 and 1 on the board to do uploads and use Serial Monitor/Serial Plotter, etc.
These are cheap from all the usual electronics sources and are a nice general tool to have on hand.
The last time I bought, all the cheap FT232R-based modules from the Chinese sources use a counterfeit chip, but even if you get stuck with one of those they still work perfectly well.
If you buy one of these modules, I recommend you get one which uses the standard "FTDI header" pinout:
For the Mega, that is not essential, but as a general purpose tool, it is really important.
The standardized pinout will allow you to plug the adapter right in to an Arduino Pro Mini and many other boards that use this pinout. If you get an adapter with a non-standard pinout, you would need to use a mess of jumper wires to adapt it to the standard pinout. Some adapters don't even break out the DTR or RTS pin, without which you will need to manually reset the microcontroller at just the right time on every upload.
i meant when board is cost 10$ and and chip coast 4$ this is not cheap. it is almost half of the board price... + and also cosider this chip is not nessesery for the board to work.
thank you for advice!
I haven't ever "burned" even one. Do you know how / what so that there's not a No.3 ?
i meant when board is cost 10$ and and chip coast 4$ this is not cheap.
Suggestion: skip your next cup or two of cappuccino and then buy a new board.
yes i made stupid mistake. I just plugged in a 24 voltage power supply .There is a reason. I also burn voltage regulators. but i just wanna exercise to repair this board myself.
You will almost certainly have to replace the ATmega2560 chip too. Good practice!
why? ATmega2560 is working fine.
Ah. Not a "genuine" Mega2560, then. Are you sure it has an actual 16u2 chip, and not some other USB/Serial converter?
IMNSHO, a $10 board isn't worth fixing. Either use one of the workarounds (ISP programming, external USB/Serial adapter) or throw it away.
Unless you are really good at SMD soldering already and set up for these, I would recommend just buying the cheapest chip you can find in a QFN IC package and some breakout PCBs for that footprint to practice with. That way you can get plenty practice without being nervous about wasting money if some don't come out right.
Something like this combination:
I have no clue what those chips are. I just grabbed the first thing I saw on eBay as an example. Bonus points if you find some chips that do something useful, but you'll get enough value out of them even if you come out of it with nothing other than proficiency at soldering QFN packages.
Thank you. I really need practice with cmd soldering. That's why I was looking for the cheapest alternatives .
...
Thank you for your advice!
You will need some soldering station with the hot air. The cheapest one costs about 100 bucks. Next one is some heat proof material to protect sockets and connectors around the chip. Someones use kapton tape. Plastic parts can be damaged easily and be prepared to replace them as well. The third important thing is some gel or liquid flux to decrease the melting point. They use lead free solder for merchandise products nowadays. Used solder is probably alloy with silver so it is much harder to melt as the lead one. Pretty big obstacle is that the 16U2 have contacts under the package.
I'm recommending to practice first on some old piece of computer board or so.
Have a fun!
Anyhow, the cheapest alternative is to buy a new board.
yeap i got a Hot air gun already and need some practice.
Surprisely i bought 5pcs 16U2 on ebay for 11$ usd.
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