No display on Kill-a-Watt after adding xbee

[franklin97355]

I built up the adapter and programmed the xbee and all looked well. After installing it I put it back together and plugged it in...no display...waited a minute and still no display so I unplugged it, took it apart and checked the wiring. Everything looked OK so I disconnected the wires from the chip and tried again. Now I have a display but it thinks my power is "dC" . Also I can no longer communicate with the xbee even if I unplug it or jumper rst to ground. DANG! What should I be getting for resistance across the diode? I'm at a stand still tonight but will look at it again tomorrow. Thanks all.

[adafruit]

theres no resistance across a diode, its a diode
you can post up photos of what you did, maybe you soldered something backwards

[franklin97355]

OK, resistance is probably the wrong term but if I put an ohmmeter across a diode I get no reading in one direction and a reading in the other. That's how I most often tell if the diode is working or not. Anyway here are the pictures ( one extra just for laughs)
Also the xbee is working out of the T-A-W but how do I get it's attention to reset some of the values? It isn't responding even if I unplug it or ground rst pin. Thanks.
PS should have made those pictures smaller. I compressed their byte size but not their resolution.
PPS did make them smaller. Thanks for all who are helping.

[adafruit]

if you take the xbee out of the kaw does it start working?

[franklin97355]

Yes, without the xbee it works fine. I will reinsert the xbee and see if the problem was a fluke or not. Sorry about the pictures (the're huge!)
(later) OK here is what I get. After testing to see if it worked without the xbee I inserted the chip and the led flashed every 2 seconds about 6 times so I plugged it in and.... nothing. I took the chip out again and all worked so I put the chip back in and immediatly powered it up... it worked - display and flashing led. I unplugged it let it set until it quit flashing and when I plugged it back in no display and no led even after a full minute. Go figure.

[adafruit]

they can be a little noodly on startup because of the supercap. its completely not expected!

[franklin97355]

Well I left it plugged in for an hour and no difference (no display, no blink from xbee)

[us7892]

I built a couple of these so far, and both failed to work when first plugged in.

I think the big capacitor simply needs to charge for a couple seconds. Just plug it in, count to 5, unplug, count to 2, plug it in again, and it will likely work fine.

If I leave it unplugged for more than 30 minutes, I need to do the above procedure again, to get it displaying and transmitting.

If you still have issues, it must be a faulty component or wiring...?

[franklin97355]

I'll try that tonight. Thanks.

[us7892]

I'll try that tonight. Thanks.

For me, the LED was dimly blinking, and the LCD was not displaying any numbers for 30 minutes before I unplugged it, spent 20 minutes reviewing my soldering, and tried again. It's the start-up that is the issue. I assume the "guts" get confused initially, with the capacitor drawing a bit of power. I think the cap needs to power up. That is why you let it power, unplug, and immediately plug it in again. Then, the cap is already charged, and not drawing what it was drawing when it was "cold".

[adafruit]

yup! i do that 'instinctively'
i should add it to the instructions tho

[franklin97355]

Unplugging doesn't fix my problem so I'm going to take it apart tonight and check things out. Is there a way to get the xbee's attention again to check the settings? I've tried unplugging the usb adapter I used to program it in the first place but it never seems to respond. Also I was considering adding some components that would hold the xbee off until the cap had a chance to charge (don't know which way I might do this yet) would that be worth the time and trouble or am I just wasting time?

[adafruit]

you can force reset the xbee by touching RST and ground together on the adapter breakout. do it when XCTU tells ya to
are you using a killawatt thats different than the one in my photos?
you should also try extending the xmit delay times from 2 seconds maybe up to 3?

[franklin97355]

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't resetting at the right time. My TaW looks just like yours and I've set the sleep to 4 but the cap never gets above 2 volts with nothing on the load side ( just plugged into the power. I can see a power hit every few seconds but no led flash. I'll keep working and will find a way around this. By the way plugging and unplugging won't be the solution for me because we lose power about twice a month where I'm living for a few seconds. The power company says the breaker tripping on some power pole is a feature because it keeps someones house or tree or fence from catching fire...

[adafruit]

try a bigger reset cap too...