Bragging about my first complex soldering job
I have a project I made a PCB design for, and today I finally had the chance to assemble it. Can't test it properly yet, the built-in SMPS is the only sign of life it can give (I'm waiting for the cable I'll use to debug/flash the board), and it does show SOME sign of life (I'm measuring 0.89V instead of 1.1V).
This is a VERY amateur result, probably. I can see many places where I used too much solder, there's also flux everywhere, and some smaller components don't seem to align perfectly, but it's a start, and it isn't completely dead.
I made some design/part ordering mistakes, too. The buck converter at the narrow part of the board has a 10 uH coil soldered to it, but it's supposed to be 3.9 uH. So when I power this thing from the intended 9V battery, I get 3.8-4V instead of 3.3V, which is problematic for the reset pin, for example. The 3 connectors are placed so close together that the middle one is almost impossible to solder without burning both its neighbours. The 2 connectors at the top are too close to the edge, which means that I needed to use sandpaper on the opposite side for the board to fit into the enclosure I bought.
I loved using the test points I made. This is the first time I used them, and they're useful, even without actual logic running on the board, let alone when I finally get the debugging cable.
Overall, the job is messy, my desk is even worse, and everything is sticky. But I'm proud, nonetheless. Curious what you think, give me your best....or worst.