• My Pi Zero died!

    From Kurisu to All on Saturday, November 28, 2020 20:20:21
    So, as some may know I have a Raspberry Pi Zero which was, incidentally, what version one of this BBS ran on. I got it for free as it had been put inside of an NES cartridge as a project to turn it into a Retropi. It was in a batch of games we got in at work and I took it upon myself to turn it into something actually useful. Add a wifi module and boom, it made for a nice BBS test platform before I moved it to the current server.

    Move on to the last week, where I had finally found the thing again (it had gone missing for a while, lol) and I had started messing with it again. That was all fine until the other day when it just stopped working at all.

    What I think happened is something fell on it when it, and a few other things, fell while I was moving something and yeaaaaaah... no dice after what should have been a noncritical bump.

    So, I am going to attempt a reflow, as I figure maybe the BGA solder points got damaged -- most likely cause, as the unit certainly wasn't powered up, but if that doesn't work no biggie -- Pi Zero's cost 5 dollars. Won't be an issue to get another one with the next order of stuff for work.

    So yeah, there's a story for you all.
    _____
    Kurisu Yamato
    www.xadara.com
  • From Nkeck72@nkeck72@finalzone.ddns.net (nkeck72) to Kurisu on Monday, November 30, 2020 11:31:37
    In article <5FC30565.9.local-tinkerin@finalzone.ddns.net>
    "Kurisu" <kurisu@finalzone.ddns.net> writes:

    What I think happened is something fell on it when it, and a few other things, fell while I was moving something and yeaaaaaah... no dice after what should have been a noncritical bump.

    An important point to remember is that ESD kills Pi Zero boards fairly
    easily. Any board that size has that same problem, for that matter.

    -----
    -nkeck72 (Mac Plus)
  • From Kurisu to Nkeck72 on Monday, November 30, 2020 11:34:14
    Re: Re: My Pi Zero died!
    By: Nkeck72 to Kurisu on Mon Nov 30 2020 11:31 am

    An important point to remember is that ESD kills Pi Zero boards fairly easily. Any board that size has that same problem, for that matter.

    A good point to bring up. It's entirely reasonable it did get a nice shock, given how dry the air is inside a house this time of year.

    If that is the case then it is what it is -- can easily snag another one, of course, and maybe this next one I'll give a bit more protection to. :)
    _____
    Kurisu Yamato
    www.xadara.com
  • From Nkeck72@nkeck72@finalzone.ddns.net (nkeck72) to Kurisu on Tuesday, December 01, 2020 11:48:47
    In article <5FC52D16.11.local-tinkerin@finalzone.ddns.net>
    "Kurisu" <kurisu@finalzone.ddns.net> writes:

    A good point to bring up. It's entirely reasonable it did get a nice shock, given how dry the air is inside a house this time of year.

    Yeah. I lost the microcontroller in an Arduino Uno that way.
    Thankfully, it was only the microcontroller and not the whole board, so
    I just popped a new chip in the socket and it was good as new.

    -----
    -nkeck72 (Mac Plus)
  • From Kurisu to Nkeck72 on Tuesday, December 01, 2020 18:03:42
    Re: Re: My Pi Zero died!
    By: Nkeck72 to Kurisu on Tue Dec 01 2020 11:48 am

    Yeah. I lost the microcontroller in an Arduino Uno that way.
    Thankfully, it was only the microcontroller and not the whole board, so
    I just popped a new chip in the socket and it was good as new.

    It's worth following this up with the fact we did try a quick reflow yesterday and there was no change. My pi is dead. F

    Next time we do an Adafruit order at work I'll add one in. Thankfully I hadn't gotten it doing anything critical; then again, if it WAS doing something critical it wouldn't have been where it could get damaged, now would it?
    _____
    Kurisu Yamato
    www.xadara.com