[Elecraft] K1 - Front Panel - Nothing on LCD

[Ian Nightingale]

Hi Don, I bow to your genius. The problem appears to be a soldering issue with the main chip. I was very lucky in that I was able to remove the solder from one side of the LCD and lift it up enough to get to the chip soldering points. A re-solder of each pin and all is well with the world.

Very lucky, as the next post for me arrives late October.

I wonder if it would be worth adding a test stage pre-LCD install to prevent juniors like myself going down this route.

Hopefully I'll have time to complete in the next few weeks and be transmitting from the hills of Adelaide Island when the sun comes back.

Many thanks again
73,
Ian - VP8ROT (G0VZM)






----- Original Message ----
From: Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com>
To: VP8ROT <ian_nightingale at yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Tuesday, 10 June, 2008 12:45:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K1 - Front Panel - Nothing on LCD

Ian,

The very most likely problem is that you have a soldering joint failure.
Look very critically at your solder connections.  Is there just a slight 
bit more solder applied than that required to fill the thru-plated 
hole?  Do all the solder joints have a smooth concave slope on the 
sides?  Do the edges of the solder joint taper out to an almost 
invisible edge on both the solder pad and the component lead?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes,  then your soldering 
is certainly suspect.  You must apply enough heat to cause the solder to 
flow out onto the solder pad and down into the thru-plated hole.  Any 
solder connections that have a blob of solder on them are not well 
soldered connections.  An excess of solder can hide a poorly soldered 
joint, and in fact is the usual appearance of a bad solder joint.

Review the figures in the soldering tutorial on the Elecraft website if 
necessary.

73,
Don W3FPR

VP8ROT wrote:
> Hello, I am building a K1 and have come up against a problem I can't solve at
> the " Alignment and Test, part 1".
>
> Here you power the K1 for the first time with the RF, filter and front
> boards connected. After the LEDs do their test the LCD screen should show an
> error code. Nothing appears on my screen.
>
> I have checked all chip orientations and to the best of my knowledge check
> for shorts on the switches (they go from + volts to zero when pressed).
> There are no obvious solder problems on the board.
>
> Please could someone suggest any tests I should perform to find the source
> of my problem.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Ian, VP8ROT
> Rothera
> Antarctica
>  
>