Helped Needed Diagnosing Non-Functioning Quicksand [resolved]

[Brank]

Just finished my first kit, the Quicksand, and it doesn't work. .  I get no power, no smoke, no noise, nothing.  All the connections appear to be soldered properly so maybe I have a mis-wired connection?  I double checked everything but can't figure out what is wrong.  There is a bit of a sloppy solder at the left output terminals on the board but I don't think that would cause no power.  There's a close up in the pictures attached.

Any tips or suggestions would be most appreciated.

-Brad Rank

[aragorn723]

Hi,

There are a few solder joints that would be good to check.  The two that stand out are the one by the green wire, and the one by the red wire.  Did the solder bridge onto another pad?  Are they supposed to be connected?  If not, check for continuity between the two joints, and if there is, de-solder the joints, and try again with fresh solder.  Also, you might try checking where the voltage comes in to the board (assuming the batteries are good!).  Do you get a voltage reading there?

Dave 

[Paul Birkeland]

If you look where the 20 pin socket is placed into the board from the bottom side of the board, it looks like none of those joints are soldered.  It also looks like one pin is missing completely. 

-PB

[Brank]

Yep, that's it.  For some reason I didn't think the chip socket needed to be soldered (duh).  Thanks.

[Brank]

Just to confirm, the chip socket gets soldered to the board before I put the chip in, correct?

[Doc B.]

Yup.

[2Bornot2B]

My copy of the manual does not say to solder the IC socket. Were there revisions to the manual?

[fullheadofnothing]

Flip the board over and solder the capacitors, inductors, and socket into place.