I have power problems and I think my soldering is correct, let see if I can make sense explaining this. I will dissect the problems I think I have one by one but, in general, I had everything working and when I connected the USB or when I moved the board to place/test the buttons it suddenly losses power. Short circuit? Not sure where, because I looked a lot and I do not see anything wrong (so far). The thing is that the board comes to life after I de-solder and re-solder the power inputs (LiPo) and power outputs (Raspberry Pi and display) and I connect it to power (USB-C) again. Sometimes it is kind of hard to get it back to life, but once it gets back I can power on and power off without issues. I know the ICs from the board are not broken as the red LED lit when USB-C cable is plugged (at least the TP4056 one, which receives the voltage from the USB-C and connects to the battery and LEDs), schematics: https://easyeda.com/rlcmtzc12/gba_dmg_v2.
- 1 - Is there an easy way to "reset" the power circuit of the PCB board in order to get it back to life after the short? I know it is wrong to do this without fixing the short, but until I find it, I have to test and test. I keep re-soldering the power wires but sometimes comes to life and sometimes does not... I have not got yet any way to reset the ICs in the PCB.
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I have several questions that might lead to fix the problem:
- 2 - The LiPo I have is the one from the picture below. You see, there is a PCB strip (came with the LiPo) that takes care of the over-charge/discharge. Is this really a problem to have it there? Taking into account the OpenGBZ board has this features built in. If this is a problem, how could I take this PCB strip out and solder it directly to the OpenGBZ PCB?
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- 3 - I did a mini-PCB for common GND and common 5V jut for easy soldering all components there (see image below, red and black wires to small green PCB on top of the OpenGBZ. Yes, they are isolated from each other.). I think this is no porblem, but just to make sure. Right now the small PCB is not laying on the OpenGBZ PCB, just to make sure contacts.
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- 4 - Is there a way to test the ICs on the OpenGBZ board in order for me to troubleshoot where the problem might be? I have little experience with schematics of PCBs but maybe some of you know the correct voltages I should be getting at some points in the PCB. Schematics here or image below: https://easyeda.com/rlcmtzc12/gba_dmg_v2
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- 5 - The way the wiring is done in this project is fairly simple: I have the battery connected to the OpenGBZ PCB and 5V output is connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero and Screen. Buttons from PCB are connected to GPIO pins directly and the USB is now connected with an extension cable to the micro-USB on the Raspberry Pi Zero. This makes me think the problem is on the PCB board, but really do not know where is the problem or how to find it. Any advice?