Almost fried my ESP32

QuantumLove
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:54 am

Almost fried my ESP32

Postby QuantumLove » Sun Mar 03, 2019 12:13 pm

I was checking the voltage outputs of my GPIO pins pins with my multimeter on my ESP32 DevKit v1, my positive probe was on a 5v pin and i accidentally touched the 3.3v pin with my negative probe. The smoke started to come out from both of the pins but i quickly removed the probes from the pins, there was a smell of burnt PCB but no signs of damage to the PCB and the board or the components and the board didn't even turn off when i shorted it. I checked all of the components and they seem to work fine, no overheating and the code is uploading without a problem, you can't sense the burnt smell unless you really put your nose against the board. I came to conclusion that the board survived the impact but i am not sure whether it is safe to use it or shall i get a new one. The thing i learned is that you have to be extremely careful when probing the electronics

mikemoy
Posts: 626
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2018 9:10 pm

Re: Almost fried my ESP32

Postby mikemoy » Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:45 pm

Not sure how you define the word "safe". The bottom line is when something smokes it means something was pushed beyond its limits.
Do things survive that smoke a little? Sure. But IMHO, for what these cost just get a new one. Lets say because of this accident you weakened the 3.3v regulator, a filter cap, or an I/O pin. Seems to work just fine right now. But say a week from now you wire something else up to it and its just not working right. Odds are your going to think its a problem with your code when in reality its the weakened or bad part that is causing the problem.

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