Okay. Confession time.
First, if you have been following along at home, I’m sorry – I have been leading you on a fool’s quest. I did warn you at the outset I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Carry on, don’t worry about me, I’ll go down with this ship.
Second, here’s the actual confession. Despite amazingly detailed directions from Adafruit’s website, I soldered the Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino Kit v1.0 totally totally wrong. I soldered one of the L293D chips into the location for the 74HC595N integrated circuit chip. And I wondered why it didn’t work.
This would completely explain why the shield made a pop noise, why there was the smell of burning, and why one of the L293D chips (which was not an L293D chip AT ALL) was getting super hot while the other was just fine. I just tried to de-solder the L293D chip, but that’s not going to work. I’ve de-soldered a part before, but surface mount parts are MUCH easier to de-solder. 1
At this point my choices are, from wisest to most foolish:
- Abandon all hope and prayer of building a DrawBot. Power down my laptop, unplug my router, take the battery out of my phone and stop inflicting my delirium on the world.
- Order another Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino Kit v1.0, and start again. 2
- Keep trying to de-solder that damned L293D chip, hope and pray I didn’t destroy both the L293D and the 74HC595N, then try to put them in their proper spots.
- Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Who cares that one sad little chip refuses to act like another sad little chip?! More power and brute force will carry the day. If I cannot make this work, I will ride this project straight into HELL! Mu-ah-ha-ha!!!3
I’ve taken a stab at desoldering the L293D, but it just isn’t working. The solder isn’t really coming out. Even if it does, I’m going to have one hellishly ugly board by the end of the day – and I’ve probably already burned out the L293D and/or the 74HC595N.
At this point, I think I’ll opt for #2 above.
- Wanna make a DrawBot?
- DrawBot Resources and Links: Updated 2012/04/19
- DrawBot, the Adventure Begins
- DrawBots for the slow learner
- DrawBot - Parts Ordered!!!
- DrawBot - The Breakdown
- DrawBot - Parts Shipped!!!
- DrawBot - What would you draw?
- DrawBot - The Plan!
- DrawBot - The Hacks
- DrawBot - Giant Unicorn?
- DrawBot - The Delivery?
- DrawBot - The Delivery, Part II
- DrawBot – The Delivery, Part III
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part I
- DrawBot – The Software, Part I (and an existential conversation)
- DrawBot – The Delivery, Part IV
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part II
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part III
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part IV
- DrawBot – Design Considerations
- DrawBot – Halp!!! No - seriously, a little help?
- DrawBot – The Face Palm
- DrawBot – The Delivery, Part V
- DrawBot – The Silver Lining of Failure
- DrawBot – The Delivery, Part VI
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part V
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part VI
- DrawBot – Printed Parts
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part VII
- DrawBot – The Operation, Part I
- DrawBot – The Assembly, Part VIII
- DrawBot – The Breakdown, Part II
- DrawBot – Printing!
- DrawBot – Printing, Part II
- DrawBot – Why are you crying?
- DrawBot – Calibration
- DrawBot – Pen Selection
- DrawBot – How to Recover from a Stalled Print!
- DrawBot – Drawing Success(ish)!!!
- DrawBot – Pen Selection, Part II
- DrawBot – Onwards and Upwards!
- DrawBot – Another Successful(ish) Drawing!, and an Update
- Restarting a Stalled DrawBot Drawing
- TSP FTW!
- Speedier DrawBot Drawings
- Two new DrawBot links! And an update!
- Excellent DrawBot Slides
- Another Drawing Robot!!!
- Score one for SMT, eh? [↩]
- It’s a nice day to start again. [↩]
- The world is ours, let’s use it up. [↩]
I confess – I too have a box of electronic kits that I have destroyed :-). I vote for #2!
A good clear mistake is better than a mysterious one.
I’d buy a new kit, and sometime in the future, when buying electronic parts, add an L293D and 74HC595N to the order (and a good solder sucker if you don’t have one) and try to save the old shield. You could also take the shield to Maker Faire in May and a nice person at the “learn how to solder” tables could train you to suck solder like a master.
@Kongorilla: That is an excellent idea! I’ll do that!
[...] Assembly, Part IVDrawBot – Design ConsiderationsDrawBot – Halp!!! No – seriously, a little help?DrawBot – The Face PalmDrawBot – The Delivery, Part V Option #2, recall? [↩] No Comments [...]
[...] time with all the bits in the correct places. The Adafruit directions are incredibly detailed, I just soldered a few parts in wrong like an idiot last time. This time it went much smoother and much [...]
[...] DrawBot – The Face Palm [...]