[Elecraft] KX1 Part 1 build issue

[Don Wilhelm]

Frank,

That "smells" like a bad solder connection somewhere.
I would go back over the soldering with an iron temperature of 750 degF 
or hotter.
Make certain that the solder flows out completely onto both the 
component lead and the solder pad - add a bit of solder as you go (you 
should actually be adding flux).
A solder dwell time with a sufficiently hot iron should happen in 3 to 4 
seconds.  If the solder does not flow out in that time, the iron is too 
cold.  If it happens in 1 second or less, the iron is too hot.

Look at you solder connection.  With thru-hole components, you should 
see the solder wick through the thru-hole connections on the board.

A sage builder said that good solder connections should look like a 
mountain, but not like a volcano.  Your solder connections should have a 
nice fillet around the component lead, and it should be concave.  If the 
solder connections look more like balls, then sufficient heat has not 
been applied and will result in a faulty connection.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 4/27/2016 8:14 PM, frank wrote:
> I'm building a KX1 and finished Part 1. I encountered problems during 
> testing.
>
> First I noticed when scrolling through the MENU items some some 
> segments of the LED display don't light on some menu item names. 
> However the same segment might light on another menu item.
>
> Now it's started going dark during testing and not coming back on 
> after button clicks or encoder turns. When it does this the 5v and 6v 
> lines still have correct voltages and nothing feels hot to the touch. 
> The only way to get it to come back is to turn it off and wait a while.
>
> I've carefully checked parts placement and solder joints and can find 
> no problems, and it passes all the part 1 voltage tests.
>
> What should I do?
>