CC3000 Stuck at Initializing

[paulb]

Last week, I purchased a cc3000 breakout board uFL 1.1, and I have it connected to an Arduino UNO R3.

When I run the ArduinoCC3000Test project to verify functionality, it hangs at “waiting for the cc3000 to boot” indefinitely. To obtain the serial output, I have the UNO connected to my Windows laptop via USB. I have tried hooking it up the the AC-to-DC 9V power adapter to make sure the UNO and CC3000 have enough juice. I have even tried hooking up the UNO’s 3.3V to the CC3000's VIN instead of 5V as instructed, again to no avail. I'm using the 1.5.8 IDE

I see in multiple forums that not only do some of these units come DOA, but that the 1.1 units sometimes need a firmware update. Since I cannot even initialize the unit, I can't even attempt something as drastic as a firmware update, even though simplicity and quality is why I trust Adafruit products.

I have quadruple checked connections, as indicated in this article:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cc3 ... 0-breakout

Attached is a picture of my wiring. I have touched up the soldering points, making sure that they are not in any way touching each other or parts of the breakout board that they shouldn't.

I have also found that getting a module which is DOA isn't unfounded, as described in this article:
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.ph ... g&start=30

I thought this was going to be easy, maybe it's just an unlucky first time.

What am I missing, how can we figure out if the CC3000 is okay or DoA?

Thanks much,

Paul

[Franklin97355]

1.5.8 is not released as stable yet. Try using 1.0.6 instead and see what happens.

[paulb]

Thanks for the quick reply Franklin.

After downgrading to Arduino IDE 1.0.6, the exact same sample sketch (ArduinoCC3000Test.ino) produces the exact same result (see screenshot below). I have even change the 'USE_HARDWARE_SPI' value to false (on the recommendation of the script), switched power from 5V to 3.3V into the VIN, all to no avail.

What would be my next step?

/Paul

arduino-cc3000-IDE106-test-fail.PNG (43.21 KiB) Viewed 342 times

[paulb]

Just an update, my problem was that the IRQ pin and header had slipped up through the plastic casing slightly, causing there to be a disconnect between riser pin and contact on the CC3000. I think maybe my soldering pen was too much for the pin assembly, or I was too heavy-handed with it.

After resoldering the pin entirely, the CC3000 works!

Just goes to show that newbies need to pay REALLY close attention to detail when soldering, or simply buy solderless headers and save yourself the headache for basic PnP stuff.