MikeHeather Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Hello:I've put together my first 5 CTB16Kpcv1 kits. It went quite smoothly, however, one of my my controllers is having some problems where the led may come on, may come on temporarily very dim, or not all all. This is without the CAT5 being connected. So I need to trouble-shoot. Is there a published trouble-shooting guide that I can follow?Regards,Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 (edited) First, check -every- solder pad.. even reheat each one.. I've missed soldering whole sockets before.. Find yer board and d/l the Troubleshooting Guide: http://www.lightoram...umentation.html this link is easy to miss, under User Manuals, at the very top of this webpage.. Edited September 11, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 Excellent, just what I was looking for.Thanks,Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 Well, just to follow up on my findings on my CTB16PCV1 green board.Symptoms at the time of investigation:Board is powered and not connected to PC but LED does not light at allI checked 16 pin header for +5 VDC +/-0.1 VDC between bottom left pin and 4th pin down on left. This checkout fine.Board is powered but LED does not light at all (voltge checks above passed)With the U2 microprocessor removed, I used a short jumper to connect the bottom pin on the left and the 2nd pin down on the right, and the LED lit up.Trouble-shooting guide didn't provide futher steps if the LED lights up. So I put the microprocessor back in, power it up, and got a flashing red light. Hooked up to hardward utility and everthing works now.So I'm a bit skeptical that something healed itself. Now this is a controller that I was using when my USB485B went south, maybe that caused something and removing the micro-processor and the jumper on the 2nd row of pins on the 18 pin header to check the LED lighting fixed/reset something?Is there a way to do a stress test?Thoughts?Regards,Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Ok, per your last post. but keeping in mind your first post. You had a loose connection. Could be the chip was not firmly installed in the socket or the socket is not well soldered onto the board. Although the jumper made the LED light up strongly. This makes me want to say that the chip was not well seated or chip leads or socket contacts had some oxide on it and reseating cleaned the contact surfaces. I would take one more good look at all solder joints of the socket. If they all appear to be nice and shiny, then it was the chip to socket contacts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 (edited) Aye, like I said, ya should hit all th' sockets again with the hot pencil ta make sure you really did apply solder ta each socket finger. It is naught unusual ta have a chip insereted, but th' fingers naught make conductive contact.. none were folded under, right? Edited September 12, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 I'm going to go ahead and take it out of the case and take off the heat sinks and check it all out to double check. Left it on all night and it still working. All fingers were fine when I took chip out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LORisAwesome Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Well, just to follow up on my findings on my CTB16PCV1 green board.Symptoms at the time of investigation:Board is powered and not connected to PC but LED does not light at allI checked 16 pin header for +5 VDC +/-0.1 VDC between bottom left pin and 4th pin down on left. This checkout fine.Board is powered but LED does not light at all (voltge checks above passed)With the U2 microprocessor removed, I used a short jumper to connect the bottom pin on the left and the 2nd pin down on the right, and the LED lit up.Trouble-shooting guide didn't provide futher steps if the LED lights up. So I put the microprocessor back in, power it up, and got a flashing red light. Hooked up to hardward utility and everthing works now.So I'm a bit skeptical that something healed itself. Now this is a controller that I was using when my USB485B went south, maybe that caused something and removing the micro-processor and the jumper on the 2nd row of pins on the 18 pin header to check the LED lighting fixed/reset something?Is there a way to do a stress test?Thoughts?Regards,MikeI had a new board with the same problem awhile back. Turned out that I had the microprocessor in backwards. It worked fine once that was corrected.Is is possible you had it in backwards initially, then replaced it correctly after you tested the LED?Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 The controller did work for a while in early tests, so I don't believe it was in backwards initially. This investigation is the only time I took the chip out since building the controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 You could try powering it up and gently prodding the components with a wood dowel or unsharpened pencil. If your status light starts misbehaving again as you do this (even briefly) then you've found a bad connection.Not sure if I've just freaked out anyone with that suggestion, but it's worked for me in the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 (edited) Actually I forgot that part of the ops post. Na, what Tim suggest is common method I would use it to, if the problem is intermittent. Or the plastic part of a small, very small screwdriver. Tapping and proding gently. Dont really care to much for the pencil sharpened or not. Graphite dust will conduct and cause problems. Edited September 12, 2012 by Max-Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 I have taken it out of the case and the heat sinks off. After close examination of the pins for the microprocessor socket, I found a pin where the soldering is questionable. I could actual wiggle the pin, so I could see how the connectivity could be intermittent. This would line up with the symptoms. So I'm going to clean that up and fix anything else that might be questionable, and I should be good to go.Thanks all!Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 yep, reheat each pad.. my first step in troubleshooting.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Mike,Was that by chance pin 6. Counting from top right to the left. I did a reverse engineering of the circuit board just in case I ever have to do some trouble shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Mike,Was that by chance pin 6. Counting from top right to the left. I did a reverse engineering of the circuit board just in case I ever have to do some trouble shooting.Cool! (filing a mental note to bug you if I ever have such questions ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeHeather Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 Mike,Was that by chance pin 6. Counting from top right to the left. I did a reverse engineering of the circuit board just in case I ever have to do some trouble shooting.Max-Paul:I presume you are referring to the microprocessor socket. I went back and looked to see which one it was, and I can't totally recall, but looking at the board from the soldering side, I believe it was actually on the bottom row around #9 (left to right). Sorry, but I touched them all up and they all pretty much look the same now.Cheers,Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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