[#ifdef moose]

Sorry, I didn’t see your last response before I wrote the above. If I order a new ATmega644 MCU, will you flash it with the alpha clock firmware? I was planning to order an FTDI Friend (or a cable; I see you’re out of stock on the Friend) as well, but not an AVR ISP, unless you’d suggest the ISP. As you can tell, this AVR stuff is all new to me, although I have plenty of professional programming experience.

[#ifdef moose]

I pulled all the ICs and reinstalled them. I removed the display modules and inspected the solder joints and I can’t find anything obviously bad There were no bridges that I could find (but I wasn’t expecting any, since it did work for a few days). Some of the joints looked a little dull when viewed from above, but they’re shiny when viewed from the side, and none of the components feel loose.

The rear LED didn’t light when I connect the power supply (I didn’t reinstall the displays). I tried moving through the menu blind, making a few changes at each stop, to see if it would make noise or light the LED.

I’m stuck. If you’re willing to try to diagnose the problem, how should I prepare it for shipment? I assume you want the PCB and the ICs. Should I remove the ICs and put them on the antistatic foam, or leave them installed, and should I put everything back together, and replace the LED modules?

Thanks,

David

[#ifdef moose]

Thanks for the fast response. 

The real panel LED is dead as well, so I guess that means the MCU isn’t running. Could something have been bricked by the arc when I plugged in the power supply?

All the ICs look like they’re well seated (but I did have a problem with the U3 chip; the dot segments didn’t work until after I reinstalled it). I’ll try reinstalling the MCU.  I don’t see any obviously bad solder joints, but I’ll take a closer look as soon as I find my magnifying glass, and I’ll let you know if I find anything.

I was planning to get an FTDI cable to play with the software, but I don’t have it yet, nor do I have an ISP. I do have a multimeter, if there’s anything else I can check.

Thanks,

David

. 

[#ifdef moose]

It’s working now.

The IC seemed to be properly seated in the socket, so I pulled it and tested all the pins with a continuity tester, but there were no unintentional connections. I did observe two small blobs of solder underneath pins 12 and 13 on the socket side of the board, but they weren’t bridged. When I reinstalled the IC and rechecked it, the displays worked properly. I just needed to use a bigger hammer :-)

Thanks for the pointers.

[#ifdef moose]

This is AWESOME!

Or should I say, “fascinating.” 

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