Thank you JR. It took me about 5 hours to get my pedalShield all put together, but it worked like a charm once I got there. It was the most complicated hardware kit project I've taken on but your instructions and reading through the forum before I got started helped a ton. It was a really fun project and playing with it, both coding and strumming, kept me up until 4am this morning. I'm looking forward to programming it and then later hacking on the hardware once I know what I want...
In the build picture on the first page as well as in the PDF - the electrolytic caps C14 and C15 appear to be in the board in opposite orientation (one with the white stripe on the left, one on the right). The board however, indicates they should be in the same orientation (the square mounting holes / positives are both on the right).
Could someone look at the schematic and pictures and board and verify the correct orientation?
Hi, you should own one of the very first releases of the pedal, in that PCB the orientation of C15 was not right. We fixed all documents and updated the PCBs fast but seems that you built it before that.
So, the correct orientation is the one showing in the PDF and images (check
this image
for more clarification)
This cap is just a decoupling cap (and it is derated) so in practice the circuit will work the same even if it is placed wrong, that is why was not easy to spot, I have around boards of the very first release and they work perfectly (with that cap misplaced), however it is easy to de-solder it and place it right so I suggest to you to update it... I apologize for the confusion that it could create
Check the layout below to check the orientation:
TIP: As you can see C17 and C15 are connected to the same points (in parallel) so if it is not easy to solder again C15 to to the original pad you can do it on C17 pads.
Well after i had soldered all the small parts, then i ruined my pcb.
I couldn't sodler the pin headers, what a pain.
When i soldered them, the melting temperature caused the pin to get a different angle. Not only that, the gravity attracted it downwards and it fell down.
Then i tried to desolder the mess with a hot air gun and i ended up melting the IC sockets.
Now i have to wait to receive it again... Is there a good way to solder the pin headers? I cant believe all the time and money i spent went to waste from them!
I have ordered a breadboard to keep the headers in place when soldering, but i dont know if that is the best option.... Any good resource on how to solder the header pins?
Hi, I am sorry to hear your issue with the pin headers.
Well, as you know this pins can be pretty heat sensitive (as well as the diodes), so my best advice is to apply the less possible heat to solder them, and wait for them to cool down before applying heat again. Take your time, I know that sometimes you just want to finish it fast but if you have the problem with the last step take your time, maybe 30 minutes to do it carefully.
Maybe the temperature of your soldering iron is too high, but if you cannot adjust it the best is to give short/fast touches.
You can keep the pin headers in place using a breadboard or the Arduino board, so things dont move much.
In fact not all the pins are needed, just the pins that carry power and signal, 10 pins in total if you check
this image
.
You can try to recycle your board, If you melted the sockets you can completely remove them and solder the ICs directly to the PCB (make sure you put the in the right place and with the right orientation), and about the pins you just need the 10 connections I told you about (+ ground and power), you can have a look to the schematics and layout to see where all goes.
Sometimes this kind of problems can make you understand all better and give you experience and ideas.
