geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: cryptokey on Fri, 20 November 2015, 02:18:34
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Hey, so I'm in the process of modding my pok3r to use leds. To make sure I was on the right track, I soldered leds in the outer corners of the board and updated the firmware. My issue is, the first led I soldered was a bit messy and although 3 of the leds work flawlessly, one of them will not light up. I have tried replacing it with new leds twice and it still will not work. I do not know much about circuitry but I'm wondering if I broke something. Is it possible that I broke a resistor or something that's replaceable? If so, which one would I have to replace it with? Thank you for any help!
EDIT:
The only pictures I have are before I added the LED, and a picture of after I added it the first time. The first time, the led was backwards since Vortex stated on their facebook page to reverse the positive and negative poles. For the three working LEDs, they are using reversed poles (short end for positive). I then replaced the non-working LED with a new LED that was reversed, yet it still did not work.
Before soldering the LED for the first time:
(http://i.imgur.com/a5IYMAK.jpg)
After soldering the LED for the first time. Afterwards, I resoldered a new one with reversed poles yet it still did not work.
(http://i.imgur.com/TMPdiJF.jpg)
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Could you post some pictures? Does the poker 3 support led's natively with led holes?
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Could you post some pictures? Does the poker 3 support led's natively with led holes?
Updated with the pictures that I have. If necessary, I can take my board apart again and take a more recent picture.
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Edit: Didn't read the last part, sorry.
Perhaps it's a cold joint. Have you tried heating it up more and letting the solder flow through the hole?
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Edit: Didn't read the last part, sorry.
Perhaps it's a cold joint. Have you tried heating it up more and letting the solder flow through the hole?
I remember one of the times I soldered, I put quite a bit of solder on it. However, I don't remember if that time I used the proper LED placement. That being said, I'll try it again sometime and be careful to put enough solder (I don't have very much experience). It just seems odd because I re-soldered it with proper LED placement twice so I feel like it would be unlikely for me to make a cold joint both times.
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Edit: Didn't read the last part, sorry.
Perhaps it's a cold joint. Have you tried heating it up more and letting the solder flow through the hole?
I remember one of the times I soldered, I put quite a bit of solder on it. However, I don't remember if that time I used the proper LED placement. That being said, I'll try it again sometime and be careful to put enough solder (I don't have very much experience). It just seems odd because I re-soldered it with proper LED placement twice so I feel like it would be unlikely for me to make a cold joint both times.
Yeah that does seem a little odd, have you tested to see if the LED is the problem? I usually like to put a small watch battery in between to light up each LED before I solder them. I rarely find a dud but it's convenient when I do.
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Edit: Didn't read the last part, sorry.
Perhaps it's a cold joint. Have you tried heating it up more and letting the solder flow through the hole?
I remember one of the times I soldered, I put quite a bit of solder on it. However, I don't remember if that time I used the proper LED placement. That being said, I'll try it again sometime and be careful to put enough solder (I don't have very much experience). It just seems odd because I re-soldered it with proper LED placement twice so I feel like it would be unlikely for me to make a cold joint both times.
Yeah that does seem a little odd, have you tested to see if the LED is the problem? I usually like to put a small watch battery in between to light up each LED before I solder them. I rarely find a dud but it's convenient when I do.
Each time I replaced the LED, I used a new one. Is it possible that I messed something up by re-soldering so many times?
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Just had a close look at the pic and looks like the right side of the pad near the LR40 might be detached from the trace? It's not shiny... To confirm bend the LED lead over and touch it to the resistor, if it works trim and solder it there :)
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The joint looks good but as orange said, it might be a bit loose on the trace, if it turns out the trace has detacted you can just scratch some of the epoxy coating off the pre-existing one and resolder
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The joint looks good but as orange said, it might be a bit loose on the trace, if it turns out the trace has detacted you can just scratch some of the epoxy coating off the pre-existing one and resolder
Just had a close look at the pic and looks like the right side of the pad near the LR40 might be detached from the trace? It's not shiny... To confirm bend the LED lead over and touch it to the resistor, if it works trim and solder it there :)
Sorry, I'm quite new to soldering. I'm honestly pretty clued out about what you mean. So what do you mean by the pad? LR40 is the specific resistor? What would the shininess mean? Are you saying that a resistor might be detached? By bending the led over to touch the resistor, what did you want me to touch each pole of the LED to? Where might I need to solder it?
My apologies again for so many questions about this!
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Okay, so I bent the LED and connected one end to the resistor and the other end to the hole for the LED and... it lit up! Should I solder it to the resistor?
Backlighting, anyone?
(notice my horrible amazing first-time soldering skills)
(http://i.imgur.com/mCfGPhU.jpg)
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I really don't understand the schematic for this as it just looks wrong, but the traces on the PCB suggest you need to connect the LED between it's other pad and the other end of the resistor. Literally put it through normally and bend the nearest lead straight sideways so it touches the bottom of the resistor and you should be good.
As pictured you're probably bypassing the resistor so I would guess that the LED is brighter than the rest? Not good, it will burn out...