from Hacker News

How to Destroy an Arduino

by harrydoukas on 12/8/12, 7:39 PM with 30 comments

  • by jrockway on 12/8/12, 10:14 PM

    Despite all this, I've never been able to damage an AVR. Either I am very careful in my old age, or the stock AVRs are a bit more durable than this article would lead you to believe. I'm sure I've shorted a pin to ground while set to high, for example, because it's a one-byte programming error to do so.

  • by PedroDiogo_ on 12/8/12, 11:53 PM

    I have one extra ATMega168 and I will test some of these methods but I'm not sure if you can kill one of these chips just by doing some of these methods.

    All I can say is that once, while programming one of these ATMegas, I accidentally swapped VDD and GND and left it there for 2/3 minutes. The chip got very hot and I burnt my finger but once I left the chip cool I was able to program it again and after 2 years it is still working.

  • by gregable on 12/8/12, 9:51 PM

    Great way to do marketing. It's not only interesting and engaging, but also actually useful regardless of whether or not you buy their product.

  • by pravda on 12/8/12, 9:51 PM

    Well, none of these methods is sufficient to destroy the Arduino, you will just destroy the ($2.50) AVR.

    I would certainly recommend using the UNO or earlier revision with the socketed AVR.

    Then you can have a couple of spare ATmega328's for backup.

  • by quasse on 12/9/12, 1:44 AM

    >> Method #4: Apply External Vin Power Backwards

    I know this one isn't true, because I did this last night with no ill effect. I accidently connected a 9V power brick with the leads reversed. Nothing happened, the Arduino just doesn't turn on until you reverse the leads.

  • by DHowett on 12/9/12, 2:02 AM

    This article is literally ten instances of "How to destroy an IC: apply power where power does not belong, or apply too much power where less power belongs." with marketing piled on top of it. To be fair, if you did any of these things directly to the AVR powering a ruggeduino, the exact same thing would happen.

    I'd not have been surprised to see "apply 120V AC to Vin/Vcc" on this list, simply for the common sense involved in such a statement.

  • by ComputerGuru on 12/8/12, 11:33 PM

    Is #10 actually going to destroy the AVR?

    Method #10: Exceed Total Microcontroller Current

    I'd imagine it would just temporarily disable it, but disconnecting the extra draw would put things right again... I don't think undervoltage or undercurrent physically damages the AVR?

  • by Too on 12/9/12, 9:16 AM

    Awesome article. Shows some common failure scenarios of a real product, explains exactly what will happen and proposes an easily understandable solution.

    One of the best electronic lessons i've read for a long time. Finally makes you realize why most pcbs has all those weird components sitting around instead of just pushing the io-pins straight into the µC.

    While the avr might be able to handle some of the failures in certain scenarios it's still good to know how to protect yourself in case you use another controller or if you really want to be on the safe side.