Drawdio not working

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bbette
 
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Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Finished assembling my new Drawdio today. No sound!

I've tried wriggling the battery holder.
I've figured out that, contrary to the troubleshooting instructions, there is in fact not a switch that needs to be turned on!
My soldering joints all appear to be fine.

What else to check?

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

I did the following test, to see if the problem was the speaker connect (I used the "elegant" direct-to-board approach, so the soldering connection is essentially impossible to check visually).

I connected a different little speaker to the speaker wire terminals, using alligator clips. I was able to generate a couple chirps from the unit, but nothing more. Sound production is rare, and unreliable!

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

I notice the battery compartment is somewhat too small to actually hold a AAA battery correctly -- the battery inclines to pop out.

Defective part?

Possible to have a replacement sent?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Post a photo of your circuit and we'll see if we can find any clues.

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

"The image file you tried to attach is invalid."

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Forum doesn't appear to allow me to post photos . . .

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Here's a photo of the top of the Board.
Attachments
Top of board
Top of board
Drawdio 1.jpg (8.54 KiB) Viewed 335 times

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Here's the bottom of the Board.
Attachments
Bottom of Board
Bottom of Board
Drawdio 2.jpg (8.63 KiB) Viewed 334 times

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

There's a 1MB size limit on images, but 800x600 is usually works.

Could you try again with copies a bit larger please? 160x120 doesn't give me enough detail to see the parts and construction.

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Is this better?
Attachments
Larger image
Larger image
Drawdio top larger.jpg (442.09 KiB) Viewed 306 times

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

And the underside . . .
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Bottom larger
Bottom larger
Drawdio bottom larger.jpg (320.97 KiB) Viewed 306 times

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Those are much easier to read, thank you.

The component placement looks good, but a few of the joints could use some TLC:
joints.jpg
joints.jpg (60.31 KiB) Viewed 299 times
Give them a dab of flux and re-melt them with your soldering iron. You want a nice, smooth fillet from the board to the exposed end of the lead: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guid ... lder-joint

At a guess, I'd say the 10k resistor at the end of the 555 is your troublemaker.

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Thanks --

I just finished resoldering the connections you circled. Still no luck!

What else to check?

(NB: yes, I did make sure I'm using a fully charged battery. I tried wetting my fingers when holding the ends. But now, I don't even get an occasional stray chirp, just total deadness.)

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

PS the battery holder still wants to squeeze the battery back out (losing the positive connection). For testing, I've tried holding the battery in place in the holder manually, so I'm assuming (correctly?) that it's making appropriate contacts.

bbette
 
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Re: Drawdio not working

Post by bbette »

Tested the battery compartment on a different circuit, and although it doesn't hold the battery in place very well, it appears to function correctly electronically, so can rule that out.

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