How to test if microcontroller IC is damaged/burnt

[niranjan23]

how to know and how to test microcontroller ic is damaged or get burnt.....??

 

[hexreader]

Re: microcontroller ic test

1 Try it in a minimal circuit.

2 See if you can program it.

3 Make a test board that has an LED with series resistor to each output and run a simple LED flash program.

This covers 99.9% or more of faults. Most micro-controllers either work or do not.

If you are worried about the last 0.1% or less, then write test programs for each peripheral.

Alternatively - just bin what you have and buy a new one.

 

[Magnatron]

Re: microcontroller ic test

most of the damaged ones will overheat in a minimalist circuit. if not try a led blinker program. if no response then it will be DUD

 

[thannara123]

Re: microcontroller ic test

single port may be burn ,

 

[tpetar]

Re: microcontroller ic test

how to know and how to test microcontroller ic is damaged or get burnt.....??

All depends from IC type. You can test IC with watching signals on pins, with well known parameters of circuit. If you know that some IC should generate some signal on some pin with some parts value, this can show status of IC. Also if we have example ADC, you can give some known value on in and try to watch what you get on IC.

You can use oscilloscope, signal analyzers, frequency meters, ..... or even small dedicated test circuit for that particular IC.

I remember that I once had problem with one uC pin, pin was damaged I didnt know that in first time, I buy it in shop new part, I didnt expecting this situations. When I try second uC all was ok. Sometimes is good to have several uC.

:wink:

 

[Magnatron]

Re: microcontroller ic test

i think atmel avrs are a bit hard to damage , once i accidentally gave a mega 8 9vDC at its power supply, the whole thing heated up, fried i thought; after couple of tries with its fuse settings (parallel port pgming) it finally came to life..

 

[tpetar]

Re: microcontroller ic test

Maybe that wounded uC just waiting to revenge for this frying in some delicate moment when you need it.

 

[Magnatron]

Re: microcontroller ic test

but it was working perfectly.. but you just gave me a scary thought . the thing is that, it got mixed up with my collection of mega 8s almost impossible to find it now. PIC did cheated me few times but not AVRs.

 

[tpetar]

Re: microcontroller ic test

If you dont use it in some critical device no problem, but if you use it for some medilac measurement, heating/cooling control, alarm systems,... and similar things, replace it with new. Better dont mix used with new, use some separation technique, boxes or similar thing.

You can always put some testing firmware inside that uC to test his pins. That firmware should gives some well known signals on pins whics you expecting and monitoring with some analyzer or scope.

When I ususally use some uC or other IC on protoboard that uC is not used in final device or back in my private stock of semiconductors, thise parts stay just for testing in separated box.

 

[Magnatron]

Re: microcontroller ic test

its an accidental mix-up. critical equip?? nah.

 

[tpetar]

Re: microcontroller ic test

Also you can use PICKit 2 or PICKit 3 for debugging