YBox2 - DOA?

[telarium]

Tried assembling my YBox2, which was a birthday gift from my wife. I believe I've followed all the steps correctly. Once the heatsink was soldered in, I checked the voltage and everything seemed fine. By the time I got the Propeller chip installed and the instructions suggested hooking it up to a TV to see if there was video, there wasn't. No video signal was coming through. I continued assembling anyway just to see if something was missing, but still nothing. The ethernet lights won't come on, the led won't do anything, and there's still no signal.

I've attached three large images. Can anyone tell me if I've missed something blatantly obvious? Or how I might go about diagnosing the problem?

[adafruit_support_bill]

There are a few suspicious solder joints there - in particular some of the pins of IC3 and IC4. Re-heat anything that hasn't flowed well onto both the pin and the solder-pad.

[telarium]

Okay, so I reheated the joints you pointed out to help the solder flow better. Unfortunately, still nothing. I then decided to re-do all of the connections to see if I had missed something else, but still nothing. The only life on this thing that I can identify is that the LED will change colors if I touch the bottom contacts with my fingers, and the heat sink gets a bit warm, so I know power is flowing. But there is no video signal at all, and the ethernet jack, as far as I can tell, has no activity.

I'm still hoping this thing isn't dead. I was really looking forward to getting this project started. I've attached another image after I touched up some of the solder a bit. One of the connections next to the eight-pinned chip may not look like it was soldered correctly in this photo, but I can assure you it is. I've tested the connections with my voltmeter to make sure the circuit is complete. The angle of this photo just makes it look like there's no solder on the joint.

[adafruit]

the 28 pin socket which holds the ethernet chip isnt completely soldered as far as we can tell. that should be it! also make sure the chip is in right and seated

[telarium]

Resoldered the ethernet chip again, and checked all joints with a voltmeter. Everything seems okay, but the result is the same. No video signal, no activity as far as I can tell.

[adafruit]

does the 3.3V regulator have the right output?

[telarium]

Yes, the output from the regulator is 3.3v. I tried both a 6v and a 9v power supply.

[telarium]

Is there anything else I can do to diagnose what's wrong? I keep checking all of the connections, and haven't found anything that seems to not be solid.

[adafruit]

there's a missing socket pin from the 40 pin socket and some others are loose. perhaps when it was inserted the pins were knocked out? its for the chip power

[telarium]

The Propeller chip?

[adafruit]

yeah, remove the chip. look carefully at the socket, it looks like some pins are missing?

[telarium]

You're right, it appears the positive pin connection was just completely missing. Unfortunately the only way to fix it was to solder a jumper wire from the board to the pin on the chip, but once I did that, it worked! Good enough for me. Thanks for the help.

[adafruit]

unfortunately you cant remove the socket, but we can send you a new socket (or you can cannibalize one you have sitting around) for a new pin.

[telarium]

I think I'm okay with leaving a small wire as a connector. It ain't pretty, but it works.

[telarium]

Well, I spoke too soon. It was working for the day I tried soldering the chip's pin directly to the voltage. It worked for a while, and I upgraded to the new 1.2 bootloader. Now it seems to be dead again. I measured the voltage going into the propeller, and it seems good. But the LED doesn't turn on anymore, there's no video signal, and none of the ethernet lights come on.

Help!