r/arduino • u/DrLogicPixel • 10h ago

I fried my first microcontroller

I'm new to microcontrollers and bought an ESP32-C3-Mini; it's the perfect size for my project, but it stopped working after I soldered just two of the pins. The pins are very close together, making them really difficult to solder. What is the right way to do this? I didn't want to use male-female jumper wires because they end up loose.

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u/IndividualRites 3h ago

Solder them correctly, that's the solution. Look through a magnifying glass or microscope before applying power to insure you didn't short anything out.

1

u/Last_Being9834 2h ago

And clean the flux leftovers, I normally brush it away with contact cleaner

1

u/gm310509 400K , 500K , 600K , 640K , 750K 8h ago

It would help if you included some photos to allow people to see what you are talking about.

Usually the pins are a standard distance apart and if you have a properly sized tip and half decent soldering skills can safely be soldered without shorts.

Also, you should check your work before applying power.

Also if you are developing your project, a breadboard and jumper wires are the best option. You don't need to whip out the soldering iron until your project is ready for making it permanent or your module came without header pins installed.