I started to play with these awesome Moteinos but I cannot upload any program.
What i have done:
Buy original Moteino R6 with integrated Lora and Flash + LowPower FTDI adapter R3 from Welectron
Keeped FTDI adapter default settings
Updated FTDI drivers
Installed Arduino IDE 1.8.19 on a Windows 10 machine
Added https://lowpowerlab.github.io/MoteinoCore/package_LowPowerLab_index.json to board manager URLs
Installed LowPower_LowPowerLab 2.2.0 via library manager
Installed RFM69_LowPowerLab 1.5.0 via library manager
Installed SPIFlash_LowPowerLab 101.1.13 via library manager
Uploaded code selecting Arduino UNO as board and the correct COM port
Actual behaviour:
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
The FTDI adapter RX led sometimes blinks during upload
Other things that I do not understand
Performing a continuity check using a multimeter the 3v3 pin seems linked to the GND pin - is this normal?
In the VIN pin i read around 4.7v, but in the 3v3 pin i read 0
The Moteino's led never blinks during the process
The component near "FTDI" label seems strange, maybe destroyed? (see photo)
Tested and not working also in another Windows machine.
Am i forgetting something? Have I damaged the Moteino during soldering? How I can find the real problem? The FTDI seems to work because it powers the Moteino and I checked the soldered pins using a tester
1) You must choose Moteino as target, not Arduino UNO. All the programming details are explained here: https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino/programming-libraries/
2) Moteinos are tested for each order, after soldering the radios, a test sketch is uploaded to test a few things including transmission/reception and the flash chip (this also ensures the board will upload a sketch). Therefore it is practically an impossibility that a Moteino is shorted or something wrong with it (would not even be able to ISP flash them if that was the case). Unless damaged during shipping or on the user side, I do not see a reason why a board would be shorted/DOA/non-responsive.
3) Check your soldering, to me those look like potentially a lot of cold solder joints around the board. Flux is your friend here to touch up all those headers. And good quality flux core solder is best when you solder anything. A solder joint needs to look like a clean clean tear drop (made of solder), without excess solder around the solder joints. Here's an example:
(https://i.imgur.com/s2OrzXg.png)
1) In the page that you linked it is stated that we must use Arduino Uno as target
QuoteTo upload a sketch, select Arduino Uno in the Tools>Boards menu in the Arduino IDE, and the serial port emulated by your FTDI-Adapter or USB-serial adapter in Tools>Serial Port
Unfortunately these are my first experiences with electronics and I probably damaged the board when soldering. I will try to buy another Moteino to load some programs before soldering the headers, in order exclude other problems. Thank you
Note that Arduino UNO should work the same, since the pin definitions are so close to each other. But things like LED_BUILTIN are different, so it's always best to just go with Moteino as target board. I updated that page to reflect this difference.
Those solder joints can easily be fixed, any excess solder removed, as long as you add some flux and work with a clean iron tip that can pickup the solder excess. Flux is the key here, learning to use it in rework and then cleaning it up with IPA or flux cleaner.