5 Ways to Destroy an Arduino

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*Description:*
Nothing feels worse than getting a new Arduino board and then managing to destroy it after a manner of minutes.

This episode discusses five ways you can easily damage an Arduino - so you can avoid them!

Mistake #1: Shorting I/O Pins to Ground

Mistake #2: Shorting I/O Pins to Each Other

Mistake #3: Apply Overvoltage to I/O Pins

Mistake #4: Apply External Vin Power Backwards

Mistake #5: Apply greater than 5V to the 5V Connector Pin

We also learn about an Arduino UNO derivate designed to protect against each potential mishap.

Everything has limits.

If you try to drive a semi-trailer full of gold bars over a tiny bridge, you could exceed the weight limit of the bridge, destroying the bridge and probably screwing up the semi-truck too.

Or, if you drive a car at 100mph and then try to stop it within ten feet of a brick wall – you’re probably going get all smashed up - and it’s not the car’s fault – there are certain limits the vehicle must be operated within.

The Arduino is no different. It has limits that it must be operated within. If you exceed those limits expect that you will damage or destroy an Arduino board.

If you know the limits - if you’re equipped with this knowledge - then you'll be able to protect yourself from making the mistakes that might lead to destruction.

*Read More...*

*About Us:*
This Arduino tutorial was created by Programming Electronics Academy. We are an education company who seek to help people learn about electronics and programming through the ubiquitous Arduino development board.

Have an awesome day!

[manuel]

putting aluminum inside the microwave is going to damage it, luckily the Ruggeduino..

[TheeSlickShady_Dave_K]

first vid I have ever seen on this channel
INSTANT SUBSCRIBE!!!
Well done; the very pinnacle of edutainment

[Fudmottin]

Great. Now I'm afraid to plug my Arduino in.

[TheKetsa]

I just had a look at those ruggeduino.
For the price of ONE 'ruggeduino', I can buy 45 arduino pro mini or nano copies from china. . .


There's a price point where it's not worth it. Plus we learn by making mistakes.

[dannuttle]

The free course is great for total newbies. If you have programming experience, most of the stuff on actual coding will be far too simple. But here and there there is still good information about specifically coding on the Arduino, and it's a way to get familiar with the device, the IDE, and getting them to talk to each other. It's a good place to start.

[MotorsportCreative]

I'm a beginner and actually came across the Ruggeduino webpage. I also asked what could destroy my Arduino on the Arduino.cc forums. So it's like you sensed I needed help. Thank you!

[johnbrandolini]

Even tho' I haven't damaged my UNOs yet, your video hammered home the idea that I could. However, my solution was to purchase two blank ATMEGA328P chips and burn the Arduino bootloader to them. Now I have 2 spare chips in the off chance that I toast the chips on the board. I've been pretty careful so far but have in one instance overdriven an LED to the point of damaging the LED. I guess the LED was a cheap fuse in this case. The chips are available both pre-programmed ($5.49) and blank ($4.95) from Jameco. I had originally bought the Arduino ISP for projects I had in mind where I would program the board without using the bootloader. So now I'm a little more comfortable using the boards knowing I have spare processors tucked away. The Ruggeduino is a nice idea but a little overkill for the average hobbyist.

[SoapierGlobe]

If you do use Vin and dont trust you self, just put a Zener Diode between, so if you do connect it the wrong way, it will just short the battery

Most Offical Arduino board (Mega 2560, UNO) have this anyway

[layka]

This is not really true, when it comes to I/O pins and ground. The microcontroller has internally a current limiting output driver, so it can handle a short circuit to ground without taking any damage. The current available is about 20mA. We also can see projects in the Arduino world, people connecting LEDs directly to output pins w/o any current limiting resistor. In those cases the microcontroller is delivering max. current output, into a typical 1.8V - 2.4V voltage limiting load. However, when working as inputs the absolutely maximum input voltage is 5.5V before damage. Also, the "Aref"-pin is suspectible for damage, as it's outputting the actual Aref-voltage (5V as default) when external Aref is not set. This pin must not be shorted to neither +V or GND, only float.

By the way I like your videos :)

[imrequael]

all these comments saying that with the same price they can buy 20 of them from china i would sugggest to remember that in the first place ruggeduino was created be implemented in industrial use and enviroment. if you put an arduino in an industrial situation it wont last longer. because arduino has no ESD protection no current limit protection no current limit on the pins no precision clock no protected and insulated pins no over voltages and no possibility to run from -40 to 85 degrees celsius. This is the difference not the fact that you coulf buy 10 from china at the same price, of course you could but it will last a week on an industrial enviroment and also is not even certified and protected so the price is fully justified

[NicholasAarons]

Awesome Video Dude. Keep up the great work. Nick.

[JDPorter]

could you make an in-depth tutorial on the adafruit pwm servo driver? That would be awesome!

[markharrington]

The best way to protect any port on any processor is to use opto couplers but not just for over current conditions and over voltage but for other reasons too one of these being that noise

Spurious bursts of noise upset and change values on port registers which can give you false readings when dealing with high switching speeds Shifting through registers and suddenly changing from output to input can equally produce the same result but for best results either use hex buffers or opto couplers and since we are moving towards fibre optic might a a good idea to do this anyway then you can move forward with that technology

[kolyra]

I had shorted pins accidentally before, but the arduino is just resets.
so i never killed a pin that way

[ertldenes]

thank you I've just ordered my arduino and this video was really useful. subscribed.

[thomaswilson]

In the last week I have went through 2 arduino unos because I wanted to make a gameboy but I had a 12v battery and I plugged the bare wires into the 5v pin and the ground 😅👍

[Mrvideosandgames]

This seems like a big advertisement. My Arduino has survived short circuits - the LEDs just go a bit dim and/or the board resets.

By the way, if I remember correctly, the barrel connector protects against reverse polarity.

[bernym]

This vidoe is esuless. I nerev meka mistekas. 😂

[zachsylvester]

When I was a kid messing with an Arduino UNO I was trying to power a motor with Arduino PWM so no motor controller this motor would've also pulled about 500 mah. Then I had a 9 v plugged into the vin and ground. My circuit didn't really make sense lol because I didn't have any resistors at the time and I smoked the atmega chip. But surprisingly it still worked after being smoked and there was no damage as far as I could tell.

[GinTheNinja]

lmao your fancy tips didn't avoid me connecting pins A0 and 2 with 220v thanks 4 that (sarcasm xd)