I got my bitx40 today, and tonight I started wiring things up. I figured I'd do things in stages & see how it goes. The raduino board powered up from the USB port & I got the tuning pot connected & working, so I thought I'd run it from the 12V power & make sure that all worked OK. I took a quick look at the wiring chart, connected the orange wire & black to 12v and ground, flipped the switch... LCD lights up for about a half second, then nothing.
What the???? Well, if I had been in less of a hurry, I would have seen that there are TWO orange wires, on two different connectors. The one I picked went to the Arduino nano A3 pin, and of course, blew that little guy up. Drat!
Ok, I have an Uno clone with a PLCC mega328 - take that off, and use it to replace the one on the Nano. Hmmm... no response when plugged into the PC. What else is there? Oh yes, the back side of the board has the USB chip. Lets swap that one, too!
Try again - no response from the PC (i.e. no device shown when I plug it in). Hmmmm... Oh, I see that I dislodged the 12MHz crystal next to the USB chip when I was fiddling with it. I tried to solder it back down, but the darn hot air tool had the flow up too high. After 15 minutes on my hands and knees, searching the floor of my shop, I found that little critter. OK, try again - flow rate at minimum. I carefully set the crystal on the pads, bring the hot air tool closer and... dang it! It still gets blown on the floor again. This time, despite desperately searching with a really bright LED flashlight, I just cannot find the crystal.
I am really bummed out.
How long does it take to get a whole 'nother Raduino board? Will I have to wait another month, as I did with the bitx40 kit?Is there another option I can try?
