Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

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kpwr
 
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Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

I'm using the adafruit Wave Shield and having trouble getting out of the gate.

1. sketches are now compiling, but it seems as though they will not upload to the arduino unless the shield is disconnected. Is that normal behavior?

2. I've tried the examples (e.g. SDReadTest), they are not working for me. I have two different issues

a) When it has seemed to download to the arduino, and the shield is subsequently connected, no output is produced in the Serial Monitor ... nothing shows up there at all. I expected that it would be looping through and outputting continually

b) I often have trouble with the COM port - it will work fine, then disappear (no longer on list or described as "in use"), causing difficulties uploading sketches to the arduino. No combination of unplugging, closing the IDE, etc... reliably allows the upload to function again.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Post photos of the front & back of the shield & we will check the assembly.

Also, what Arduino are you using with this shield?

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

I assembled the shield with the help of the local maker space, so it wasn't a complete guess. I did notice that when I first plugged it in, it smelled hot. And the C1 capacitor has been been hot to the touch.

I'm working with an Uno

trying to post pictures.. jpgs don't work? neither do word docs

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

JPGs are fine. Just re-size them to about 800x600.
I did notice that when I first plugged it in, it smelled hot. And the C1 capacitor has been been hot to the touch.
Sounds like maybe a reversed capacitor. Electrolytics are polarized and will do that if installed backwards.

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

I was being careful with the capacitors, but anything is possible.

attached is a pic of the front ... we made a mistake on on C8 (used the wrong capacitor) so had to "un-solder" it and use a new one. so it might look a little funny.

I'm very appreciative of your guidance on this. thank you
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front.JPG
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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Your caps look right. A picture of the solder side would be helpful. Also, I can't see which way the transistor is installed. Does the curved side match the curve on the silkscreen?

You haven't installed any of the jumper wires, so your shield won't actually work. But you have to get the short-circuit solved first.

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

[attachment=0]back.JPG

I can't believe it -- but now I see that I put the 3.3v regulator to the SD card in backwards (near c1). presumably I need to remove and turn it around right?

I also entirely missed the jumper wire step (was working from my phone last week) -- sorry to waste your time on that one! That I can finish I'm sure.

are these issues that would cause problems with uploading sketches? hard to know?
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Turn that regulator around, and see what happens.
The jumper wires won't make any difference to loading sketches.

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

Hi Bill,

I turned around the regulator (had to order a new one because broke the other while removing). I think I'm getting closer.

I'm no longer having port/com issues.

Now, I've got the Wave Shield attached and am able to upload a sketch. I'm just using the examples. I'm getting a card init error though (error code 6). I don't know how to debug unfortunately. Attached are photos of front and back. It's not beautiful. but I don't see any mistakes.
Attachments
the front
the front
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the back
the back
back.JPG (794.4 KiB) Viewed 475 times

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Try running the "cardinfo" example sketch in the SD library. (You may need to change the definition for the CS pin to 10 - follow the comments in the code)
Post the output of the cardinfo sketch.

Review this guide and take a close look at the soldering on your jumpers and your SD card holder. Use a clean hot iron and take your time, you should be able to clean those up nicely.

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

got it to work with the cardinfo sketch --- had to change the pin from 4 to 10.

I also cleaned up the soldering a bit, though I doubt enough that it would make a difference

thanks for the assist.

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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

got it to work with the cardinfo sketch
So everything is working now?

kpwr
 
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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

now I need to create the final costume, but at least the wave shield seems to be working. I'm having trouble with the external, 3rd party speaker (erupts in a terrible noise if the volume is too high) and have a variety of other minor issues to figure out too -- but the board seems OK!

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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by kpwr »

got this to work in time for halloween. thanks to all here for their help.

used conductive thread to wire a circuit to the wave shield. touching the thread caused a wav file to play. it was a little finicky, but worked well enough

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Re: Wave Shield - COM & Serial Problems

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

got this to work in time for halloween.
Photos :?: :D

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