Arduino repaired

Arduino repaired

Last night, after spending hours experimenting how to make two arduinos communicate wirelessly with the nrf24l01+ module, I finally succeeded in my intention. I just toke a video of the (unbelievable ) event, and suddenly the serial monitor on one of the arduinos suddenly crashed.

Guess what happened? Yes. The arduino touched they keys on the table and 5v and GND pins have made love with sparkles.

Symptoms:

2v on 5v pin
– power led on half brightness (I like to call it ‘sad led’)
– arduino perfectly works with external power (VIN pins)

Diagnosis:

– Your D1 diode is dead (sorry!)

Good solution:

replace the diode with an equivalent  MBR0520LT1 0.5A 20V schottky diode
(but maybe they will ask you 5 cent for the component and 13 euros for shipping…)

Rude solution:

remove the diode and close the circuit

ATTENTION: your usb port will be not anymore protected, which means you could burn your computer usb port, if something bad happens!

As you can see from the first photograph in the post, I didn’t have the time to find an equivalent diode…

Here some pictures to clarify.

Diode MBR0520LT1

Diode MBR0520LT1

 

Diode in position (inside circle)

Diode in position (inside circle)

Diode in position (inside circle)

Diode in position (inside circle)

Comments

12 Comments

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  1. ed #
    October 2, 2016

    Happened to me too. Fortunately I could get a new Skottky diode for a decent price. A quick out and in solder fixed that.
    I think it is not just about letting the USB be unprotected but about isolating an extrnal PSU from the USB as well.

    Though yr solution does work, I wldnt advise doing it. Next time your arduino touches some keys it is your USB port that is gone

  2. mina #
    September 17, 2016

    hi

    after burn i remove it and this time my usb port on macbook not work

    then i repeat reboot 5 time to give back usb port to life :)))

    thank you 😀

  3. Kenyan Kawaii #
    July 26, 2016

    You can also use 1N4002 diode. I blew 2 boards and it works perfectly. You will just need to cut the lads so that it fits in your breadboard

    • Sai #
      September 15, 2017

      Instead of 1N4002 can I use 1N4007

  4. Anoha #
    April 23, 2015

    hi!
    “ATTENTION: your usb port will be not anymore protected, which means you could burn your computer usb port, if something bad happens!”
    How i can fix this problem?

    • June 13, 2015

      Instead of bridging the terminals, change the regulator with a working one 😀

  5. Nech #
    February 9, 2015

    Thanks a lot. I have same problem. Will try to replace diode.

  6. tatang #
    December 30, 2014

    thank you very much

  7. November 30, 2014

    Many thanks – just fried my Nano V3 and you post saved me time troubleshooting.
    Now using w/o diode and external battery pack. USB still works for uploading sketches with the diode removed.

  8. mahdi #
    September 15, 2013

    Hello!
    Thank you….

    • sergio #
      November 11, 2013

      Thank you

      • edo #
        November 11, 2013

        You’re welcome!

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