Over the past 3 months or so I have had 1 pin on each of 2 of my particle borons go bad. The first time was in the winter and when I went to pick up the boron there was a static charge. It only took out one pin so I just dismissed it as an ESD discharge, which although I have never had happen on an AVR, I figured was certainly possible. Yesterday I discovered that a different pin on another boron had gone bad. Before you ask, the applications were different and the pins are different. A0 on the first boron and D8 on the second. I have stopped using both of those borons because I don’t know what else may be wrong. Also, tracking down a bad pin is not a fun task as it isn’t my default troubleshooting option. I normally assume it was something I did wrong like a short or what not. Has anyone else had this happen? Are the pins particularly sensitive to ESD? I don’t think I have every done this to an ATMEGA-328P.
@theaddies, how are you using the Borons in each scenario? How are the pins connected and what external circuit are you using? How is everything powered?
There are a number of conditions which can affect GPIO circuitry including over-voltage, reverse-voltage, high static discharge, excessive current sinking or sourcing, etc. Understanding how each Boron is connected and used is key to giving you advice.
Hi @theaddies this is an unusual problem- can you try performing a full reset on a board and let me know if anything changes?
I held down mode and hit reset just like I would do to go into DFU mode. I kept holding the mode button and eventually it reset. I reprogrammed the device and I am still having an issue with pin D8. I am building a weather station so I have a BME280, a weather vane, and anemometer connected. When I program the device I use USB, but it is intended to run on a LiPo battery and be charged with solar. It has been working well up until the loss of D8. I was going to buy another one today as I am having issues and needed a backup. I was disappointed to see they are out of stock. I have 3, but I am trying to not use 2 of them due to the bad pins. I should add that on the boron where D8 does not work it reads about 0.6V on the one that does work it is normal, either 0 or 3.3V.
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