TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

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danman132x
 
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TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

Hello, I'm new to the board. I just finished up soldering my kit today, put all the parts in their respective spots, but my kit does not work. I didn't get any green flash from my status LED, and using a camera no IR from an front ones. I am experienced with soldering and checked over everything very well. Everything is connected good, and I used a multimeter to check some things out. Here are the voltages at everything:
Image

Battery voltage is 3.11
You can see the various pins on the microcontroller how much voltage is at each. The oscillator worries me at 0 volts at all terminals. All volts were tested with the negative probe on the negative board contact directly from the battery ( one exception, I tested the front LED's on their own + and - terminals and all 4 had .74 volts going through steady)

I also checked the transistors to make sure nothing was mixed up, and the 4 up front are the correct ones, and the one on the side is also correct.

Can someone help me out why this isn't working?? Is there any way to send it back and get a replacement kit? Pay postage maybe?


Note- when testing voltages, I accidentally hit the + from the battery onto the green LED for a split second which fried it. It did not light up before this however, nor do the IR leds. I can always pick up another green led from radioshack.

Image

Backside, you can see my soldering is pretty good on it. Disregard the white fuzz stuff, getting the sticker off was hard.
Image

Image

Image

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Check that you have C2 inserted the right way - I'm not sure it looks right in your picture.

Edit: never mind. I think you have it right.

How did you take your voltage measurements? Was that with the button pressed? When you press the button, pin 1 of the IC should go to 0V.

If the button was NOT pressed, I don't think you should have 2.5V on pin 5 - it should be 0V.

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

Voltages were measured without the button pushed down. On c2, the capacitor has the negative lead towards the button.

Just tested by pushing the button, pin 1 does go down to 0 volts when pushed. Pin 5 ( bottom right on IC i'm assuming) does show 2.5 volts with and without button pressed. I have it in front of me right now. Any other tests you want me to do?

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

Also the 4 transistors up front, the are all the same voltages.

Looking in the same direction as the top picture with the voltages (batteries just put in, button not pressed)
Left ground pin 0 volts
Middle pin towards the front 0.24 volts
Right pin 2.34 volts

All read about the same +/- .02v

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

danman132x wrote:Pin 5 ( bottom right on IC i'm assuming) does show 2.5 volts with and without button pressed.
I don't think that's right. Make sure you have the correct transistor installed at Q5 - it's different than the other 4 transistors

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

It should be correct. Here's a couple more pics of them showing the P/Ns
Image

Image

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Hmmm... Let me check a few things and get back to you.

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

Alright, I'll be here checking about every so often. Thanks

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jw40
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by jw40 »

Paying close attention because I'm having the (possibly) same problem.

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

jw4.0 wrote:Paying close attention because I'm having the (possibly) same problem.
Yeah, I'm hoping this gets worked out soon. Hoping for an update soon, I want my kit to work! lol

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Not sure what to tell you. During the assembly, after attaching the battery pack, the instructions tell you to install the chip and check that the LED blinks. What happened for you at that step?

I got mostly the same voltage readings on my TVBGone up through Q5. That's what drives the other four transistors and LEDs. Are you sure you're using fresh batteries? Depleted batteries can still show 3V but not have enough oomph to drive the LEDs. Other than that, try touching up the solders and see what happens.

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

adafruit_support_rick wrote:Not sure what to tell you. During the assembly, after attaching the battery pack, the instructions tell you to install the chip and check that the LED blinks. What happened for you at that step?

I got mostly the same voltage readings on my TVBGone up through Q5. That's what drives the other four transistors and LEDs. Are you sure you're using fresh batteries? Depleted batteries can still show 3V but not have enough oomph to drive the LEDs. Other than that, try touching up the solders and see what happens.
I didn't get any response at that step. The batteries are brand new, and I put in a different set of new batteries just to be safe also. No response from them either. So are you getting the same voltages, even from Q5, everywhere? I'm going to just reheat everything to be sure tomorrow.. If it doesn't end up working and everything else checks out, is there any way to mail this kit to you guys that I assembled and get a replacement?

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

danman132x wrote:I didn't get any response at that step.
That would have been the time to stop.
danman132x wrote:
adafruit_support_rick wrote:So are you getting the same voltages, even from Q5, everywhere?
Not exactly the same, but close. Voltages don't tell the whole story, because you're looking at modulated signals. You really need a scope to diagnose this sort of thing.

Let's take a chance and get you a new microcontroller. Email support @adafruit.com with a link to this thread and ask for a replacement TVBGone microcontroller.

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danman132x
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by danman132x »

Hello, just an update. I received my new processor in the mail today and the kit works great now! So it was indeed a faulty chip.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: TV B Gone Kit not working at all. No green light flashing

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Excellent! Glad to hear it :D

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