Hi all
I am setting up a pixelblaze for a room lighting project (750 APA102 led), and have the add on sensor board so I can make the entire setup sound reactive (should be awesome!). I am having a few issues getting the sensor board working! (the pixelblaze seems to be working fine!)
The board doesn’t appear to power up when plugged in - I think there is a small led on the corner, which doesn’t turn on.
Sound reactive patterns don’t work
Watching the variables in the edit pattern doesn’t get any data for sound amplitude or frequency.
The web UI lists exp board: none (however not sure if that only lists expansion board ?)
Digging a little deeper, I checked the voltage at the +3.3 and gnd pins on the sensor board when plugged in, and get a reading of around 2 V (). With the sensor board unplugged, the voltage present at the pixelblaze +3.3 and gnd is correct (~3.3V).
I cant see any soldering problems from when I soldered the pins onto the sensor board, or detect any shorts. None of the components seem to be heating up (to the touch). Resistance between the +3.3 and gnd pins on the sensor board is ~ 8.6 kOhms.
I’ll also add that I just tested, and the not-connected resistance between Gnd and Vdd on my older sensor board s 12 kOhms, and on my new one it’s 14 kOhms.
wow, quick replies !
heh OK so its not a led, I should have known that! And it should show up the presence of the exp board in the UI… hmmm.
so, here is a pic of the connections on the sensor board and the pixelblaze. They do look a little low on solder but test fine.
At the moment the pixelblaze is fed power through the strip connection (5V), I will try plugging it into the microUSB as well to see if that makes any difference. I was also thinking I could try and connect the sensor board to an external +3.3v power supply, could that possibly make any difference ? (or, probably turning up the voltage slowly with a CC supply and seeing how much power it is trying to draw?)
Hi @robot_zombie,
The side you have the female header soldered to is the analog input side. The other side is the expansion header side that connects to Pixelblaze. They both have 7 pins.
The aux jack should be pointed in the same direction as the usb plug.
Its just like one of these direct solder approaches but with the pluggable headers (and solder, my photo unit didn’t get soldered):
). With the sensor board unplugged, the voltage present at the pixelblaze +3.3 and gnd is correct (~3.3V).
