Digispark LCD - not lighting up

[UncleTony]

Hello Everyone!


Very excited to be part of the board. I recently joined the kickstarter movement and purchased the LCD... I spent a while soldering everything and plugged it in.. the digispark usb deal lights up fine, but the LCD looks like it has no power. I'm pretty sure it should at least light up when i plugged it in.


Anyone know what to do?

[digistump]

Try the jumper mentioned here: http://digistump.com/board/index.php/topic,181.msg1065.html

[UncleTony]

Thank you for your post!... I went ahead and bridged the 2LCD pins, its funny cause this actually occurred to me at one point..




However, It looks like I'm not getting any power? nothing on the LCD is showing - at all

[digistump]

The cable that connects the LCD to the shield - is the black wire on each side of the cable matched up with the ground pin on each side?


If you have a multimeter check that you have 5v between the 5v and GND right angle header pins that the LCD cable plugs into on the shield

[UncleTony]

I matched up the ground cables.


But you raise a good point. Maybe it's time to purchase a decent volt meter (any recommendations)? I also need to get one of those cool solder suckers

[digistump]

I use an old digital craftsman - but I'd say any decent digital will do.


If you have an RGB shield you can connect P0 on the RGB shield (with the RGB shield NOT plugged into the Digispark) to the 5v pin and GND on the RGB shield to GND on the LCD shield (LCD shield plugged in to the Digispark) - if the LED lights up red then you ahve power on those pins. If not then it is likely something with the soldering.


Any chance you can post a pic of it?

[UncleTony]

Sure, Thanks for following up with this as well.

here are some pictures:


Take a look at this album: http://imgur.com/a/KdzW3#0




as you can see my soldering skills are very bad...

[digistump]

I don't see anything obvious -


Another thing you could try is connecting the Digisparks 5v pin to the VCC on the LCD module itself - and the Digispark's ground to the Ground on the LCD - see if it lights up - this would eliminate any issue with the shield.


A volt meter with a continuity function would be a great tool for checking too - I find it saves me a ton of time second guessing my soldering.


It is possible you have a bad LCD module, but you probably want to do a few more checks first to make sure - we haven't seen a bad LCD module yet so the quality on them seems to be pretty good - but of course it does happen.


Let me know if any of that helps,
Thanks,
Erik

[UncleTony]

Great, I'll check that out today.


I'm very excited to get back into this stuff. I graduated almost a year ago in Computer Systems and almost forgot all this stuff.

[UncleTony]

Ok I connected the 5V and ground directly to the LCD from the digi piece and nothing


I dont know if it's the digi piece or the LCD

[UncleTony]

I think it's the digi device, the little lights arent on anymore. is it toast?

[digistump]

This sounds like your Digispark has been fried by being shorted - it could have been a short in the header soldering or the soldering of the shield. It is most likely fried, though you could try taking the headers off the Digispark just to see if it might still be alive.

[UncleTony]

bummmmmerrr - is it possible to buy another? without having to wait forever for it to get out of the kickstarter phase?

[digistump]

Send me an email - support at digistump dot com

[barnacleBudd]

Sorry to hear about your board being possibly fried. I often test my projects by putting a resistor and LED in series on my bread board. Connect one side of the pair to ground, put a jumper on the other side and test it by tapping into your 5V supply. If it doesn't light up, reverse the pins on the LED. Now use the loose end as a test lead. Your LED will light up if you have 5V where you think it should be. It doesn't matter which order you wire the LED and resistor. Use any value resistor from as low as 220 ohms to as high as 1K ... the higher the value, the dimmer the LED.

http://mypetdigispark.blogspot.com/