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kiteretro / Circuit-Sword-Lite

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[Fault] LED and LCD Flickering on power-on test #4

Closed rmanders closed 5 years ago

rmanders commented 5 years ago

I may have run into an issue during step 3.8 of the Electronics Guide. When I power on for the boot-up test, the LCD and board LED's flicker at a rate of about 2-3x per second. RetroPi starts to boot but ultimately ends up with a white screen. On the circuit board, L1 feels quite warm (not sure if that is normal). I will try to post a video this evening.

Troubleshooting done so far:

It almost seems like I introduced a short circuit somewhere since the flickering affects not just the LCD but most of the led's on the board. It's like something is draining a bunch of current in periodic intervals.

kiteretro commented 5 years ago

Nice and detailed :) are you running from battery, USB, or battery + USB? The chip next to the inductor, is it burning hot? (ps be careful about this, as i'm expecting that little black chip with 6x legs to be REALLY hot.. ) - which if the case, is some kind of fault with the backlight circuit on the board which is most likely not caused by you at all. If that is the case then we'll need to replace your board which will be an email to me!

rmanders commented 5 years ago

I've tested with USB power only and with battery power only, not with both at the same time yet. I will attempt that tonight (as well as checking if the chip next to the inductor is also hot) and post back. Thank you for your help!

rmanders commented 5 years ago

The same flickering does occur when both battery and USB are plugged in. You are correct in that the 6-pin chip next to L1 is quite hot. Not sure if this helps, but here is a very poor quality video

kiteretro commented 5 years ago

Yeah, so what is happening is the chip is overheating and then cooling quite rapidly.. when it overheats it turns the output off, so that's the effect that you're seeing! For me this is pretty simple to fix; replacing that black chip!

Could you send me an email, and I'll sort out repairing/replacing for you

tychoc commented 5 years ago

I would like to add that I too experienced this issue while testing my board after finishing GPOI soldering. For me, it turned out to be the flux left on the contacts. I scrubbed the GPIO header pins clean with alcohol and the problem went away.

willcalderbank commented 5 years ago

I'm having the same problem as @rmanders. The chip next to the inductor gets so hot I can barely touch it. The screen works fine for the first few seconds when booting when the chip to cool, after it heats up the flashing occurs.

hicrash commented 5 years ago

hello, i have the same problem L1 it´s so HOT. and the LCD is blinking.

kiteretro commented 5 years ago

hello, i have the same problem L1 it´s so HOT. and the LCD is blinking.

Have you got any acetone or alcohol to attempt cleaning that area (with it off obviously) with perhaps a brush/toothbrush or something? Same for the back of the LCD connector? As a previous comment suggests it might help to clean any flux left on the board..

If you do that and it's still the same, then please send me an email and we'll sort out repairing/replacing it

hicrash commented 5 years ago

Still whith the same error after cleaning. Please send me your adress for send the PCB. Thanks

kiteretro commented 5 years ago

Still whith the same error after cleaning. Please send me your adress for send the PCB. Thanks

Could you send me an email to kite@kitesitemshop.com and I'll take it from there (email record is a lot easier to reference). Thanks :)