Backup magic smoke?

Oct 25, 2006 6 Replies

Ok, I messed up with my latest board and got the pinouts for the 3.3v LDO regulator wrong. I put +5 on the GND pin, grounded the Vout pin, and tied Vin to the load. (yes, the pinout was rotated).



Sure enough, when I put +5 on it, I let the magic smoke out.



So, I desoldered it and rotated the part 120 degrees just to see if I could solder it on that way. I figured the regulator was dead, but decided to check anyway.



Sure enough, when I put +5 on it, I let more magic smoke out.



Then it started working correctly!



So, two questions come to mind:


  1. Can I trust it? It's only a 63 cent regulator, but S&H is 10x that, I'd rather avoid it, and I don't have any other parts orders pending.


  1. Which smoke did I let out, if the part is now working correctly?



The part is a SOT-23 Microchip MCP1700T-3302E/TT, if it matters.


Magic smoke is a bit like noise,

white noise/smoke pink noise/smoke red noise/smoke etc but all devices are continunally emitting smoke which is the equivalent of black noise, "equal absence of energy / rt Hz"

martin

Is that the funny "on" smell we all know and love? ;-)

Also, my office definitely smells like I've accomplished something today. I hot plate reflowed eight SOJs, a SOP and a TSOP, a 0.5mm pitch TQFP, and a bunch of 0603s. Went very well, until the smoke thing.

Hmm, Office, so what do you do in the workshop?

martin

That's obviously for the paperwork, silly. Let's just not ask what type of paper, ok?

;)

Cheers

PeteS

Lead free, but then it wont sink, will it?

martin

Woodworking.

My "office" has software development on one side, and hardware development on the other side. It's just a room in my house so I can do what I want with it, mostly.

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