WaveShield Hiss

[RobinLee975]

I put together my first shield and it appears to be working (sorta). I have figured out the whole SD card thing and have managed the whole library thing so I can upload sketches to my arduino (UNO) with no errors. When I load the unmodified PiSpeakHC.pde and run it instead of the numbers I get a series of short hiss sounds (all the same). Does that sound like a hardware problem or a software one?

[adafruit_support_bill]

Most likely a hardware problem. Post photos of the front & back of the shield and we'll have a look for any assembly issues.

[RobinLee975]

Shield Back

Back.jpg (556.84 KiB) Viewed 597 times

Shield Front

Front.jpg (580.69 KiB) Viewed 597 times

[adafruit_support_bill]

Your DAC (IC2) is installed backwards. You must align the notched end with the one on the silkscreen.

[RobinLee975]

Ugh. I knew you were going to say that! Thanks for pointing out what I did wrong.

[RobinLee975]

Your DAC (IC2) is installed backwards. You must align the notched end with the one on the silkscreen.

Otherwise a fairly decent job huh? I have just learned that unsoldering is really difficult. I shall be ordering another shield post haste! Thanks for the help. At least I learned something today, and that's the point isn't it?

[adafruit_support_bill]

Yes, unsoldering is a pain - especially for multi-pin devices. There are some tools that make it somewhat less painful such as solder wick and the solder sucker.

When things start to look especially ugly, I'll usually just just sacrifice the device by cutting off all the legs then unsolder them one-by-one.

[RobinLee975]

Such a bummer. 160+ solder points served as great OJT. Look forward to my second try! I'm building the RFID bear from Make so I must try again. Thanks for such solid support adafruit!

[RobinLee975]

I just got the replacement waveshield, followed the instructions completely this time, and it works perfectly. Don't I get some sort of badge for this? Very cool. Thanks for the very helpful forum support, and wonderful on-line instructions. Next challenge. . . hooking up the rfid antenna.