Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Replaced 12-pin receptacle on Dexter, but had MAGIC SMOKE upon power up

So tonight I decided to replace my 12-pin receptable which had a few pins broken off (piece of junk!!).  I also decided to straighten the wires while I was at it.

Ah, now the wires are straighter.  Feels better.

Plugs in nicely to the VBI injector board :)

It also seems to work!  But, I  happened to notice some magic smoke (and a electrical burning smell) emanating from the board.  I happened to see that it was originating from this area.  Those pads include the GND and VCC pins of the AVR.  I checked (and double checked) that there were no shorts there but I did recently glob on an overload of flux and didn't do a very good job of cleaning it off.  I thought this stuff wasn't supposed to be conductive!  I guess I'll try thoroughly cleaning it with rubbing alcohol (if I can find some) and try again.  It would be really nice if I don't fry my AVR as that will set me back a week rebuilding this board with my spare.


2 comments:

  1. I don't think the issue is with the flux. I hardly ever clean off flux. Some people say it can eat away at your traces, but I have never had that happen. I have never seen conductive flux, so I would suggest your problem might be elsewhere. Good Luck.

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    1. Yeah, I was imagining some silly scenario (not uncommon!).

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