Aether problem and need help troubleshooting

[csteph7]

I have finished my first Aether but am having some problems with getting the LED's to work.  Here is what I have done so far

Checked the board for cold solder joints and any bridges.  I thought I had a bridge with the heat detector but the multi meter says they are fine
verified with the multi meter that the LED do not ground to the board
Programmed the pick chip successfully and verified that it was done correctly
Powered the board up and the red LED comes on.  When I power up the board I do see a very faint quick flash of red on all of the LED's
I have verified that U2 and D1 are installed correctly  


The symptoms
When I turn the switch on that that is hooked up to the manual jumper nothing happens
When I switch the jumper to program and try to install the curves LE config utility it says it is transmitting and the green LED on the Aether is flashing but it never finishes.


Any suggestions on what I should check next would be greatly appreciated
 

[RJ]

Can you post good pictures of both sides close up? This would help us look with you for basic issues to start.

Also verify the Diodes "D1" there are 3 of them are pointing the correct way. there was come confusion where I said right on the video but it is left . The line should be on the left side when installed.


RJ

[csteph7]

I checked D1 and they are oriented with notch to the right which is the same way as Cas had them in his post.  i am not sure what you mean when you say the line should be to the left.  I attached some photos that show which way they are installed

[bisquit476]

Also, the config utility never "finishes", it just keeps transmitting until it is told to stop. I had a similar problem with the manual switch, but after the latest and greatest firmware, it works as it should. What version of the firmware are you using?

Your diodes are backwards, the line should be to the left.

[RJ]

Yes he had them backwards also. Luckily they are easy to fix just lay your solding iron down across both sides and when it flows not it off the pads. The flip it and solder it back.

Once you do this it may starting working.

RJ

[vairmoose]

Looks great Dennis...

      You may want to check the soldering on the  big capacitor.  It appears (in the pic) that one leg has minimal connection.    (and of cource it could be just my wandering eye not seeing the obvious).

Larry

[n1ist]

I don't have an Aether, but aren't your ring lugs for the incoming power on the wrong side of the board?  This way, the only thing keeping them from shorting out to ground is the solder mask; that's not a safe thing.  Also, R3 is missing; not sure if that's supposed to be...
/mike

[castortiu]

csteph7,

Great soldering but the diodes are backwards.

R3 is used for the optional Fan.

When you plug the Aether it makes a quick flash with color white and not red (at least in my three of them).

I found out the easiest way to program them is open the Configuration Utility with the Aether unplugged, set the channel and click on transmit, then when “Transmitting is blinking” plug the Aether (with the jumper on programming), the Aether turn blue and takes about 9 seconds (looks like it is booting) and then all LEDs will blink with different colors for about half a second and then all of them turn yellow. Turn off the Aether switch the jumper to oper and you are done.

I suggest follow N1ist suggestion about the ring lugs, put them on the other side to avoid any shortcut in the future.

I had several problems with the Aether curves, when curves are applied and then I do a manual fading tests there are several values changes that produce a quick white flashes or a quick turn off of the Aether, I rolled back to use the default “no curve”.

Cas.

[csteph7]

Flipping the diodes around solved the problem, it is amazing how well things work when they are installed correctly!  Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction, DLA is an amazing place


Chris

[RJ]

Glad you got her going!!!!   

RJ