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dichotomos
Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 20
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:08 am Post subject:
Freeduino and Soldering --- Calling all Solder Masters --- |
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Hi everyone.
I have a problem I'm hoping someone in here has had. I scoured the net for advice and couldn't really find any straight answers.
I bought a Freeduino the other day (fairly cheap) and was interested in getting it soldered together. I followed the short but decent manual on how to construct it. I think my soldering job is amateur at best. I finished the job and then tried to hook it up but there was no response to the board at all. I already own a working Arduino Duemilanova and I am making great progress with it.
I'm wondering if my soldering might of messed up the board in some way. I have a Weller WES51 on a fairly low setting of 45. I read the trouble shooting and it says to resolder all the connections. I have a de-solderer sucker, but I'm a bit weary to RE-solder the connections.
Any Advice??
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blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004
Posts: 24476
Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 298
G2 patch files: 320
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:17 am Post subject:
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Yes that looks bad ... resolder it, and be sure to set the iron to a higher temperature, the solder didnt flow properrly now, meaning the iron was too cold.
_________________
Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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dichotomos
Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 20
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:27 am Post subject:
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So I should have nice bulbs of solder??? Similar to the back of my Arduino Duemilanova???
How much of a pounding can these boards take? what setting should I have my Weller at??? I don't really have too much experience in this area.
Thanks for the advice. |
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mark_olson
Joined: Oct 26, 2006
Posts: 177
Location: Lawrence, Kansas
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:58 am Post subject:
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| dikotomos wrote: | | bulbs of solder??? |
No. Not bulbs.
Your joints should look like this:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/fig/2170250306001.png
Get a flux pen and flux the joints before you reheat them to improve wetting.
Good luck!
Mark |
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magman
Joined: Feb 04, 2009
Posts: 363
Location: Liverpool, UK
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:20 pm Post subject:
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You should not have bulbs of solder at all, it should be more like a cone around the component wire.
Here's a link to a useful video on how to solder that may help to explain things:
http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder
De-soldering is a bit of an art as well. It might be worth practicing on an older PCB if you have one to hand. One good tip though is to add more solder to de-solder. The flux normally in the solder will make the existing solder flow better, making it easier to de-solder.
Good luck and I hope you get it sorted.
Regards
Magman |
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blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004
Posts: 24476
Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 298
G2 patch files: 320
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject:
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| dikotomos wrote: | | How much of a pounding can these boards take? |
Don't worry too much about that, better too hot and quick than too cold ... usually I end up turning a Weller up to about 3/4 of full scale .. looks like that's about 70 on your scale ... but if its leadless solder it should be hotter.
_________________
Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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dichotomos
Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 20
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:12 pm Post subject:
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| Quote: | http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_To_Solder
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Thanks for all the reply's. I took a look at that link, it helped a lot. I soldered it better now and it works. But now I'm getting an Error that's Arduino(Freeduino) specific
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync:
So I guess I'm off to their site to hopefully figure it out.
Thanks all!! |
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blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004
Posts: 24476
Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 298
G2 patch files: 320
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:51 pm Post subject:
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 you'll get that one fixed as well I'm sure!
(and others that may follow, welcome to the embedded systems world  )
_________________
Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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okvern
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
Posts: 78
Location: Seattle, Washington
Audio files: 5
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:27 pm Post subject:
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Hi dikotomos,
That error message ususally means that the board you've selected on the Tools menu doesn't match the one you're connected to. Or that the port you've selected on the Tools menu isn't the right port. It's usually one or the other. (Or that you need to hit the reset button on older Arduinos--shouldn't be that with a newer one.)
Some of your components look a little cooked in the picture--I hope that's not the case!
Thanks,
Ole |
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dichotomos
Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 20
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:20 pm Post subject:
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| Quote: | Hi dikotomos,
That error message ususally means that the board you've selected on the Tools menu doesn't match the one you're connected to. Or that the port you've selected on the Tools menu isn't the right port. It's usually one or the other. (Or that you need to hit the reset button on older Arduinos--shouldn't be that with a newer one.)
Some of your components look a little cooked in the picture--I hope that's not the case! |
Hi Okvern
First of all I'm under the assumption that the Freeduino and Arduino Duemilanova are basically the same minus the mini usb port right?
I have a Arduino Duemilanova working already, what I was trying to do was the most basic digital pin 13 "hello world blinking LED" straight from the sketchbook.
On the Arduino the patch takes a bit to load and the LED's on the Arduino do their quick blinking thing along with the LED on pin 13 and then it runs the 1 sec. Off 1 sec. On.
On the Freeduino the patch takes a lot longer to "presumably load" and the LED's on the Freeduino do a spastic blinking thing a lot along with LED on pin 13 and then nothing happens except that error report.
As for the crooked components are you taking about the little tiny chip just down from the reset button? I only soldered the big components all the tiny ones were already on. |
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okvern
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
Posts: 78
Location: Seattle, Washington
Audio files: 5
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| Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:52 pm Post subject:
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Hi dikotomos,
re: "On the Freeduino the patch takes a lot longer to "presumably load" and the LED's on the Freeduino do a spastic blinking thing a lot along with LED on pin 13 and then nothing happens except that error report."
The "spastic blinking" is the sketch downloading to the board. That's the good news. Generally, you'll see the LED on pin 13 blink, then the RX and TX LEDs blink as the board recieves data.
I have a different freeduino board, but I choose the "Arduino Diecimila with 328" option (as I use the ATmega328 chip). Do match the menu option with the chip that's actually in your board.
re: "As for the crooked components are you taking about the little tiny chip just down from the reset button? I only soldered the big components all the tiny ones were already on."
I meant "cooked"--as in, too much time under the soldering iron. I'm glad to hear that that's not the case. In the picture, the connections around the diode and LED next to pin 13 look really dark, which made me worry. Other folks have already pitched in excellent soldering advice, so I think you're on the right track.
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Ole |
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