RE: Problem while building HB's I/C board someone will correct me if I'm wrong but aren't those led's special low
power ones?  will 'a similar one from radio shack' work in this application
or does it have to be the same part number as specified in the parts list?

-patrick

-----Original Message-----
From: news-gateway@lugnet.com [mailto:news-gateway@lugnet.com]On Behalf
Of Faisal Al-Obaid
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 7:04 AM
To: handyboard@media.mit.edu
Subject: Problem while building HB's I/C board


Hi,

I'm building my HB's Interface/Charger circuit. My problem is in the serial
circuit.  I built it and it passed the test only once.  After that somehow
my power led didn't work anymore and voltage regulator gets very hot
(although it passed the power circuit test).  I noticed that the power led
got broken and I replaced it with a similar one from radioshack.

The problem now is when I plug the max232 chip in the socket and power the
board, my power led lights for 2 seconds  and then it fades and starts to
blink!  Also,  the voltage regulator gets very hot that can't be touched and
voltage at C14 reads around 1.3V!  If I remove the max232 chip everything
works fine (the power led works good and voltage reading at C14 is around
5V)

I spent  a lot of time checking my soldering looking for any shorts, but all
seems ok.  I concluded that the max232 chip may got damaged somehow.  If
anyone can give me any suggestions of how to test the max232 chip or if the
problem is somewhere else I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.  Faisal...

