I just soldered several wires to the IN/OUT pins, and now when I plug it into my computer via USB, nothing happens. No lights, no recognition from my computer. Nothing. What do I do? I really don't want to have ruined it already 
Did I fry my board? Please help!
TheDasMan
#1
lokki
#2
post a picture of the solder points you did. most likely a solder bridge to ground somewhere...
TheDasMan
#3
I'm pretty sure none of my solder joints are crossed. It might be hard to tell, but I'm certain they aren't.
Hi @TheDasMan
To much solder here... and it seems that you made "loops" or "hooks" around the holes.
Maybe you have short circuits between your connections and the ground plane. Especially the VDD PC3 and PC4 ones.
on a circuit board, the ground plane is the lighter surfaces. It is connected to ground.
TheDasMan
#8
@SmashedTransistors So how should I go about solving this, if possible? Should I unsolder the connections and redo them with less solder? Would this have fried my board, or would it just stop it from booting?
lokki
#9
hmm, you should remove all the cables and remove as much solder from the board as possible and see if it then works...otherwise you have to follow some steps from this topic: https://sebiik.github.io/community.axoloti.com.backup/t/defect-after-cutting-corners/3234 (so possibly you have to sand the sides after undoing your soldering, or remove solder from the side by other means)
TheDasMan
#10
Oh. So the problem is that I might have gotten solder on the edge of the board and that's causing the short?
lokki
#13
cool! yeah and as @SmashedTransistors already pointed out, don't make those hooks or loops, just put the cable through the holes and solder from one side only. or even better put some header pins in there...
That's good news !!
Maybe, you can practice delicate soldering on something less critical than the Axoloti.
I tell you that, because I've been too self confident with my soldering skills...
I used to do a lot of DIY stuff some... years ago. Well two decades ago.
Even so, with the lack of practice i overheated some switches that melted in the saddest way. Fortunately, i was more careful with the Axoloti.
TheDasMan
#15
Good news and meh news.
Good news is that my board is absolutely not fried.
Bad news is the bank of potentiometers I so painstakingly made was the problem. I tried wiring just one pot from it in with a much more conservative soldering method, and still nothing. There must be a short or something. It came down to even touching the VDD wire would shut down my core.
But I tried with a pot that was wired on its own, and it worked beautifully. So as of now, I've lost the battle, but I'm winning the war.