Brads Electronic Projects Forum

hello brad i finished the circuit board but it doesnt seem to work. i put a 6v powersource in and it didnt work i programmed and everything i dont know what happen

Im not 100% sure but isn't there ment to be a Regulator here?!

I put a 6v powersource in the middle of the three buttons and the negative in the negative by just touching them

That is not for a regulator, it is for your ON/Off switch. Note that a jumper is used to select between on or off. It has three terminals, the middle is common (ground).
The other two holes are for your power supply (battery).
Forgive the sloppy solder job as I have removed and replaced my battery supply several times.

Stacy

what is that jumper? where do i buy it? and what is that stick in the far right?
can you explain to me more about that jumper please

1kiko1 wrote:what is that jumper? where do i buy it? and what is that stick in the far right?
can you explain to me more about that jumper please

That is not a stick. It is one of three pins called "header pins" and you can find them at many electronic supply places. They come in a row of 50 or so, and you simply break off as many as you need (in this case you only need three pins).

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/116

If you look at the traces going to those three holes, you will see that the middle hole is connected to the same place where you connect the negative side of the battery (you will see this on the back side of the PCB). The right hole is connected to the same place where you connect the positive side of the battery (you can see this trace on the front side of the PCB). The left hole is connected to nothing. You can break off three pins of the header and solder them into those three holes.

Then you will need a little jumper, called a J2 jumper:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9044

This jumper will create an electrical connection between two of the pins, it's just like using a switch. When you want to turn it on, you slide the jumper over the middle pin and right pin. When you want to turn it off, simply pull the jumper off and slide it over the left pin and the middle pin.


Alternatively, you could just use a simple Single Pole Double Throw on/off switch!

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9609

Can I just get a breadboard jumper and put it in the middle and right and connect the positive in the + and the negative in the -

Can I see a pic of the backside of your pcb please

1kiko1 wrote:Can I just get a breadboard jumper and put it in the middle and right and connect the positive in the + and the negative in the -

1) Yes. You can use two small pieces of wire if you want to. Solder one into the middle hole, and the other into the right hole. When you want to turn it on, just twist the two wires together. When you want to turn it off, untwist them and separate them.

That is all a switch is doing - making a contact between two points.


2) Yes. Attach the power supply (battery or whatever you are using) positive to the + sign on the pcb, and the power supply negative to the - sign of the pcb.


3) I'm confused, why do you need to see the back of my pcb? It looks exactly like the back of your pcb.

Stacy

no i dont need to see it anymore but i did all that and it still dosnt work

sdudley wrote:That is not for a regulator, it is for your ON/Off switch. Note that a jumper is used to select between on or off. It has three terminals, the middle is common (ground).

Thank you Stacy Could not find my 8x8 board at the time to check it out.



1kiko1, Have you checked that you have power and ground to the microchip?.

Remove the microchip from your 8x8 board and connect up your power supply to the board, you will need a multimeter and check that you have power and ground to the microcontroller. you will need to probe the two terminals shown in this picture, Dont forget to remove the microchip so you dont damage it!.

No problem... Nice picture by the way!

Stacy

Yea I tested it with the multimeter and I did get power to the microchip but it still dosnt work

Its difficult to fix something that you dont have infront of you.. But atleast we have eleminated a power and ground supply to the microntroller.

1. You could recheck all your solder joints, a poor connection?
2. You could try and programme another 16f648a if you have one and make sure that when you programme it, the programming is successful.
3. You could also check your powers and grounds to the 373 chips aswell. (as below)
4. I guess you did fit the resistors under the 8x8 matrix?.

still, new microcontroller
checked the voltage to the chips perfect
but i think is the tracks on the left dont send electricity flow brad told me that if i had problems to let him know and i think that is the case

i still dosnt work

thANKS FOR ALL THE HELP