I spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my sound detector until I discovered that these leads were shorted by the manufacturer soldering. Wondering if this killed my board?
It wouldn’t kill it but it would prevent it from working. Try removing the short with a soldering iron or cut the short out with some flush cutters and you should be in business.
Before you try a repair, I’d suggest a quick continuity test with a multimeter between the component pin and the next pad on that trace. If it’s just a ‘cold joint’ from the factory, a bit of flux and a quick touch with a fine-tip iron should fix it…
However, if the pad is actually lifted or missing, you’ll probably need a tiny bodge wire to bridge the gap.
Honestly, if it arrived this way, I’d snap a clear macro photo and contact SparkFun support for an RMA before poking it with an iron, they’re usually very fair about assembly defects.
@Oliver2003 : you are posting AI-generated content, passing it off as your own experience. Please stop doing that. It is very misleading. In your posts, please state which AI engine you used so we can verify the content for ourselves.
In this case, the solder splash (from the selective soldering machine) is shorting out the microphone. Removing the solder splash will allow the microphone to start working. If the OP does not want to do that, they are welcome to return the board.
Thank you,
Paul
Hi Justin (@Justin_Pratt ),
Please accept our apologies. That’s a solder splash from the selective solder machine. As @YellowDog says, it is shorting out the microphone. It won’t damage the Sound Detector, but it will stop it from working. If you don’t want to remove it yourself, you are welcome to return the board.
Apologies again for the hassle,
Paul