Testing procedure for newly assembled Gertboard?

[zenbike]

Like many others, I have received my Gertboard, and have completed the assembly procedure.

Since this is my first soldering project, I am concerned with the quality of my work. In fact, it is my first electronics project.

I'd like to test each component of the board to eliminate my assembly as a source of failure in future projects, since my lack of experience will make it difficult for me to know if I have code issues, or hardware issues during the early stages of learning to do stuff with the Pi and Gertboard.

Does anyone have a thorough, component by component testing procedure I could follow? Or is there a general set of rules to follow for this type of testing, failing a step-by-step method for this board?

I realize this is not a small request, but I think it's one which will have value for many people.

Thanks for your time.

[malakai]

Have you gone through the Gertboard User Manual?

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1642649.pdf

Quite a few testing procedures in it.

[alexeames]

Indeed, the best way is to download and install the test programs according to the instructions in the user manual (not the assembly manual). Go through that and by the time you've finished you will have tested each of the sections of the board.

It will take you quite a while to go through it all, but it's a wonderful learning process and it helps you to understand a bit about how it all works. Start off blindly following the instructions and within a short space of time, you will be tweaking and modifying and starting to make projects of your own. It's very cleverly done and it kind of "sneaks up on you." Before you know it, you will have learned something and had fun in the process.

[BlueClogger]

I've completed my Gertboard and tested it with the programs in the user manual.

As a newcomer to Linux it took me some while to work out how to run the programs, a process which is not clearly explained in the otherwise excellent user manual.

Firstly, the programs are now provided as a .zip file, not a .tar.gz file. I downloaded it to my PC, unzipped the file and copied the resulting 'Gertboard_SW' folder to a USB stick.

I then went to my Pi, which is set to boot into the terminal (rather than LXDE). Type 'sudo startx' to enter LXDE in administrator mode. Plug in the USB stick, if you haven't already done so, and copy the 'Gertboard_SW' folder to the /home/pi/ folder (this is the default folder for the file manager). Reboot the Pi.

In the terminal type 'CD Gertboard_SW' and then carry out the compiler instructions as in the manual.

Type 'Dir' to check that all the test files have been compiled. Then run each file as instructed, preceeding the filename with 'sudo ./' - this will run the file in administrator mode.

They all worked for me, although I have yet to test the ATMega.

I hope these suggestions will help save a bit of time. Apologies for any errors, but they were written after the event.

[W6ZQ]

Is it normal for all 12 leds to light up when the board is power up with the 3V3 jumper in place at J7?

[andy33]

Is it normal for all 12 leds to light up when the board is power up with the 3V3 jumper in place at J7?

Yes it is if it is a rev2 board.

Andrew

[W6ZQ]

Thank you Andrew, yes I have the revised board with the surface mount leds. I sort of expected that after looking at the schematic but wanted to verify with someone who has the 21 Oct 2012 board.