The ChronoDot does not appear to be working.

[helpme2]

I made the connections, breadboard and soldered to Arduino Wireless SD shield, as per
http://docs.macetech.com/doku.php/chronodot_v2.0
to an arduino UNO R3 and ran the sketch from same webpage.
I added Serial.println("setup"); and Serial.println("loop");
appropriately, since website version produces no output on failure.
setup and loop execute as expected, Wire.available() never returns true
condition.
I had tested pins A4 and A5, as analog pins, with a joystick.
Reset, removed power, removed batteries, with and without pullup
resistors, etc, no change.

Thanks in advance,

Fred

[adafruit_support_bill]

Check the battery voltage and make sure you have the polarity correct. If you post a photo of your connections we'll double check them here.
Macetech checks in here fairly regularly, but you might also ping them on their contact page: http://macetech.com/store/index.php?mai ... 5ee48f39ea

[helpme2]

I have tested the ChronoDot with and without the battery.
I checked and rechecked the battery direction.
It should be able to set and fetch the time without the battery.
I assume that it should set and fetch the time with a dead battery.
I do not have a volt meter on me at the moment, but the battery is the one shipped with the ChronoDot.

I have attached pictures of the soldering. The interface will only allow me to upload three pictures, albeit the resisters are soldered on correctly.

Thanks,

Fred

[adafruit_support_bill]

Your assumptions about operating without a battery are not quite accurate. However, you should be able to read it if you short VBAT to ground. http://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/DS3231.pdf

What exactly are we looking at in photo 3? If those are the jumper connections, they do not appear to be soldered to the chronodot pins.

[helpme2]

The documentation does not state that it will not function without a battery, albeit I will defer to your expertise.
With a dead battery, the third condition in table 1 should be met and the Vcc should be used.

Figure 3 in the back side of figure 1. The silver color pins are the ChronoDot pins, the ones used in breadboard connections.
The copper wire is pressed against and soldered to the ChronoDot pins.

Thanks,

Fred

[adafruit_support_bill]

The docs do state (page 9)

If VBAT is not used, connect to ground

A dead battery would not meet that condition unless it were internally shorted.

In any case, the solder joints on the back side appear to be cold joints and the wires are not sufficiently wetted for a reliable connection.
http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guid ... n-problems

[helpme2]

Improving the soldering fixed the problem.

adafruit's web page(http://www.adafruit.com/products/255) for the ChronoDot states that the battery is a CR2016, but it is not.

Since the point of the battery is for fault tolerance, It would be a poor design if a dead battery would disable the device.

Thanks,

Fred

[adafruit_support_bill]

Improving the soldering fixed the problem.

Great!

adafruit's web page(http://www.adafruit.com/products/255) for the ChronoDot states that the battery is a CR2016, but it is not.

What battery is it? Battery codes do vary a bit between manufacturers & it may be an equivalent part. We don't produce the Chronodot here. MaceTech may have changed suppliers.

Typical battery life in these is over 8 years. But they can be killed fairly quickly if the battery is short-circuited.

[macegr]

Yep, the original ChronoDot used a solder-tab CR2016 battery that users had to solder in place before operation or to change it if damaged. The 2.x ChronoDots use CR1632 batteries and the holder clip visible on the top of the device.

Glad to hear that redoing the solder helped. I would suggest looking for some electronic-specific solder, a smaller (20W or so) iron, and thinner wire. That thick solid core wire looks difficult to use and will contribute to cold joints and bridges.