Renard Melted

[wingrunr]

This is the second renard board that has died for me. I got everything built according to the wiki. I am bringing the ZC in via the Ren-T so everything was jumpered accordingly. I hooked up the renard to the + 5v from a PC PSU. The trace right after the power plug immediately flashed and burned off. I test the plug, it was at 4.99 volts. I figured it may have been a bad trace so I soldered a jumper cable on. It melted the molex connector onto the plug and melted my jumper on U2 onto the header. I have no idea if the ICs are dead. Why did this happen?

[LRNeener]

What Board, was it the Ren64? Can you take a close up pic of the board and also around the burnt area.
Thanks
Camron

[P. Short]

Most likely you have a short (probably a solder short) somewhere else on the board between +5 and ground, the particular trace in question merely acted like a fuse.

If you were to use a voltmeter to measure resistance between +5 and ground, you would find a very low resistance. Assuming that you used sockets, the best choice is to remove all of the chips and measure the resistance again. It will almost definitely be zero (or much less than 1 ohm), and you should do a careful visual check the board for solder shorts between the ground plane and the various pads and traces that are apparent on the solder side of the board. When you see one, use a soldering iron or xacto knife (as appropriate) to remove the short, and then test to see if all of the shorts have been removed, and repeat the process if you still see a short with the voltmeter. When the resistance between +5 and ground is much greater than, say 100 ohms, then reinstall the chips and procede with other checkout.

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Phil

[wingrunr]

Wouldn't the resistance be close to zero anyway since the wiki said to jumper U2-2 to U2-3? That's jumpering +5 volts to ground. I also did a visual inspection of the solder side of the board and found no anomalies. I believe the ICs are ok though.

[stempile]

Wouldn't the resistance be close to zero anyway since the wiki said to jumper U2-2 to U2-3? That's jumpering +5 volts to ground. I also did a visual inspection of the solder side of the board and found no anomalies. I believe the ICs are ok though.

Can you specify what board and what version of the board you built? Also can you link to what wiki article you were following? Need more information to either understand what lead you to short out the board on purpose. Either the wiki needs a correction or there needs to be more detail added.

On any of these DIY boards, before anyone applies power make sure you review the config looking for things that just don't make sense. If it doesn't make sense ask questions first before applying power.

ms

[wingrunr]

Renard64 version XB

http://christmasinshirley.com/wiki/index.php?title=Renard_Connection_Instructions#Ren ard64_2
Method 1 using the Ren-T

I thought it made sense. I had done a continuity test on various areas to check for a short and such without the jumper on. I had even asked about it in a previous thread and no one said anything.

[P. Short]

Sorry, that was a typo in the wiki, it should have said J2-2 to J2-3.

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Phil

[wingrunr]

That explains a lot.

Edit: Success! The ICs were not damaged and the board seems to work as advertised now. The only thing damaged was the trace that was directly under the power input. I cut that out with a pocket knife and soldered on a jumper wire. Things look good now.

[stempile]

Good deal!!

I have been impressed with how resistant to damage many of the DIY designs featured in the wiki have been. I made a couple mistakes that made me sweat bullets, but in the end everything worked out.

The Wiki has been a very valuable tool in sharing this information. I think we can all agree on the benefits even though at times it might have an error or two. Its great not having to dig through lots of post to find the information that is now compiled in to a couple wiki articles or information that is very quickly updated as soon as it is a known error.

Also note, if you have not looked at it, the wiki keeps an excellent history log so anyone can quickly look back at the changes of the articles. That history makes it clear how the knowledge has grown and evolved.

Thanks Everyone!
ms

[xmus]

Good deal!!

I have been impressed with how resistant to damage many of the DIY designs featured in the wiki have been. I made a couple mistakes that made me sweat bullets, but in the end everything worked out.

Thanks Everyone!
ms

I agree, I've installed stuff backwards, shorted screw drivers across things, caused sparks to fly, shorted the output of the osc (for 10 minutes) shorted the output of the H1AA1A for 10 minutes... and the worst i've ever done was blow my rs232 input protection diodes... nothing else have ever fried.