PC-L Problem

[JRD1]

I bought a PC-L a month or two back and while building my saber had it stored in the anti-static bag on a shelf in my work bench. After soldering in all the connections nothing worked. I contacted Timand he refered me to Michael. I resolved the problem but wanted to say thank you to both of you on here and to let everyone know what great customer service I recieved. If you ever have an issue with one of the boards, and I think mine was the rare case, these guys will see to it you are taken care of. Everything is perfect now! Thanks again guys!!!

Jarrod

[xl97]

what was the problem/issue?

[JRD1]

The problem was when applying power to the board I was not seeing the constant 3.3v at the 3.3v pad, nor did I get the initial boot sound. I verified the SD card files initially and they looked good. I would get poping sounds out of the speaker similar to adding an amp to a sub woofer with live power and no input... I reverified all my battery connections and power was full at 7.4 volts on my multi-meter. I am a EE and put the board under a scope and then backlit the dual sided board to ensure all traces were intact, they were. My bench and soldering equipment is all ESD safe. It was a head scratcher for sure, I did see some very tiny solder whiskers around the components, so I washed the board down with a gentle nylon acid brush and Isop alcohol. After letting it dry I whicked all the old solder points and rewashed...Then I resoldered the power connectors and speaker still the popping sound, but I had 3.3v at the pad... I realized after speaking to Michael and Tim I had just soldered to the board with the SD card in, something I initially did not do and coruppted the files. They sent me a copy of the files and I bought a new sd card and reuploded them an everything worked fine after that. I also found a small strand of copper wire while I was washing the board the second time, but that could have come off my clothing after cutting and soldering the new wires ... Either way I was very pleased with the help I recieved and as I said my issue was probably rare.

what was the problem/issue?