soldering a pic

[Thunderchild]

I just programed a simple pwm project where the input to the ADC generated by a potentiometer (or other variable DC source) controls the duty cycle of the PWM output,

well all worked fine on the breadboard so i tried soldering the pic straight to some strip board. now nothing happens except that the outoput is 0 unless i flick the post fast enough (slowly does not do it) and the output goes high.

Did I fry the pic ? bearing in mind it may be weak as had suffered a reverse polarity and goten hot already.

will a pic normally stand soldering or are plugs always best ?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

PICs are pretty robust, I've soldered them directly without a problem.

Now getting them backwards can be a problem...

 

[Thunderchild]

hm well it worked ok after reversing the polarity i have reprogrammed it many times, maybe i weakened it and soldering it was the final blow, as its power in out and mclr its not much of a circuit and nothing to get wrong, didn't even need any wires.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

PIC's are incredibly strong, they take a LOT of abuse to damage them.

You'd have to really appallingly bad at soldering to damage one soldering it in, but in any case as it's a reprogrammable device it makes sense to fit it in a socket anyway.

Take it back out, and try reading it with your programmer - I would suggest that it's far more likely you've made a silly mistake on your stripboard layout (such as not fully cutting a track).

 

[Thunderchild]

Hi nigel, well my soldering is not terrific, a bit better with my new 12 W iron, I'll try taking the pic back out but really theres not a lot to get wrong as the actual board I made is just the pic with 2 decoupling capacitors, theres an analog in and a PWM out

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The usual fault with Veroboard is not cutting the tracks correctly, so they are still joined.

 

[Thunderchild]

well I did try with a multimeter to see that they were broken and they seem to be, I'll get the pic off and try again