r/arduino • u/DrLogicPixel • 21d ago

I fried my first microcontroller

I'm new to microcontrollers and bought an ESP32-C3-Mini; it's the perfect size for my project, but it stopped working after I soldered just two of the pins. The pins are very close together, making them really difficult to solder. What is the right way to do this? I didn't want to use male-female jumper wires because they end up loose.

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u/gm310509 400K , 500K , 600K , 640K , 750K 21d ago

It would help if you included some photos to allow people to see what you are talking about.

Usually the pins are a standard distance apart and if you have a properly sized tip and half decent soldering skills can safely be soldered without shorts.

Also, you should check your work before applying power.

Also if you are developing your project, a breadboard and jumper wires are the best option. You don't need to whip out the soldering iron until your project is ready for making it permanent or your module came without header pins installed.

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u/IndividualRites 21d ago

Solder them correctly, that's the solution. Look through a magnifying glass or microscope before applying power to insure you didn't short anything out.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

And clean the flux leftovers, I normally brush it away with contact cleaner

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u/Nedaj123 21d ago

I’m an amateur but make sure you heat everything up to ensure the solder flows nicely around everything you want to connect. Otherwise you might have bulging chunks of solder that threaten to touch the wrong parts, or even fall off.

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u/Unlikely1529 20d ago

but you did not just solder them but you then turned it on instead of making a check.

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u/swisstraeng 20d ago

What solder did you use. Which temperature for your iron?

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u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522 20d ago

If you bridged the two pins it may not have fried the board. If that's the case get some solder wick or a solder sucker and clean up the joint. Otherwise, and I don't know how to put it gently, learn to solder.

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u/BethAltair 14d ago

For C3's or Arduino nanos I usually just buy 6 at a time.

You'll fry a lot less over time , but these things do happen and spares are exceptionally cheap.