For a long time I’m addicted to blinking LEDs, so it was only natural to buy a LoL Shield by Jimmie P. Rogers. I ordered it at Watterott and – as usual – they delivered very quickly. With trembling hands I unpacked the parts – and decided to wait until tremor disappeared. After reading some descriptions of the assembly and watching this recommendable video from Super Awesome Sylvia. I started to solder the 126 LEDs; a good exercise.
Unfortunately all instructions handle 3 mm LEDs; and there is a pitfall with 5 mm LEDs:
the instructions recommend to solder the headers last, and so did I. But two headers (for the digital pins) have to be soldered between the LEDs:
This was a little bit difficult. Thus I recommend to solder the inner headers first and work with the LEDs from this point. Finally solder the headers at the edge (the analogue ones).
Finally I noticed that the solder joints were so high, that they contacted the USB port of the Arduino, so I used a proto shield as a spacer.
Here is a view of the result:
Next I started the example sketches. They worked rather good, but I had some “ghost LEDs” when LED 42 was lit. I suspected a cold soldering spot, so I re-soldered the LED. Everything was fine – for five minutes, then the ghost LEDs reappeared. Fortunately there were six spare LEDs, and I replaced LED 42. Then everything worked fine.
(Repost from my old blog, 2013-01-27)
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