Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

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lkuza
 
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Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

Post by lkuza »

Hello,

I have recently received the PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board from Adafruit to use with my Raspberry Pi. I am having troubles however getting it working.

I have soldered the headers onto the board for the UART connections and the jumper connections. I believe i did it correctly because I tested resistivity with a multimeter for each pin.

I have freed up the UART pins on my Pi, and I have compiled and installed libnfc correctly.

The problem comes in that when properly hooked up, the board is unpredictable.

When i run "sudo nfc-poll", sometimes it will open the device, sometimes it won't and say no NFC device connected. Sometimes it will read a card, sometimes it won't.

I don't know if I just soldered the pins poorly, or my board is defective. Images are attached.

Also i lost the stock jumpers included, so i improvised :)

Here is an album. If the file says it doesn't exist, try going direct link and it will show up.
http://minus.com/mAGzkoHDQXT5k

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Those solder joints do need some work. It looks like your iron was a bit too cool or the tip had oxidized, making it harder for heat to flow from the iron to the solder.

We have a tutorial on soldering here: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guid ... -soldering Give that a look and reheat the joints to get that nice, shiny fillet. It will probably be easier if you dab each joint with a bit of flux before heating it.

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lkuza
 
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Re: Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

Post by lkuza »

adafruit_support_mike wrote:Those solder joints do need some work. It looks like your iron was a bit too cool or the tip had oxidized, making it harder for heat to flow from the iron to the solder.

We have a tutorial on soldering here: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guid ... -soldering Give that a look and reheat the joints to get that nice, shiny fillet. It will probably be easier if you dab each joint with a bit of flux before heating it.
Just wanted to thank you so much for responding. I tried everything I could. I reheated the joints and added some flux. I also let my soldering iron heat up for a while, and I cleaned it so that it could transfer heat better. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not get it to work consistently. At this point I am pretty sure I burned the connectors and now the board won't work. I then after spend about 45 minutes or so practicing and I think I have it down on how to solder these headers. Thank you very much for the link. I still have plenty left in the budget, so I will try one last time with another board and call it quits after that.

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lkuza
 
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Re: Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

Post by lkuza »

Sorry for being annoying, but I just wanted to thank you for the advice because it has worked perfectly. You were correct about my soldering iron not getting hot enough, so i ordered a new one from Adafruit with the new board to replace the burnt one. Let me just say I wish I had done this earlier because it is a dream come true having a proper soldering iron. Combined with the link advice, I practiced the stack-able headers on the old board and let me just say it looks much better and was way easier and quicker to do.

Lesson learned, always buy the right tool for the job even if it costs a little more, it will save you in the long run.

It may not be pro, but it is better than before.
http://minus.com/lEBEu4SzmRaJX

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problems with PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Those joints do look a lot better. Congratulations.

I'm glad to hear that a good iron was able to solve the problem for you. Bad soldering irons are the bane of electronics. People who don't have the experience to choose an iron end up with one that doesn't fit the task at hand, have trouble, get frustrated, and end up hating electronics.

Now that you have the right tools, keep practicing. The basic principles of soldering can be taught in five minutes, but you keep learning the nuances for years. From the look of the joints in the photo, you can still run the iron a little hotter and lay the solder in a little faster, but work up to it in small steps. Also, now that the iron has stopped fighting you, you're ready to pick up the art of using flux.. that's another one of those "where has this been all my life?" things. For starters, just gob it on and clean up the mess when you're done. You'll learn to apply it with more precision as you see it work.

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