CH341a SPI / I²C programmer

[stj]

Re: CH341a SPI / I²C programmer

maybe you have a poor solder joint on the ic leg

[Umadbro]

maybe you have a poor solder joint on the ic leg

Nope, that was of the first things I checked. The programmer is back to the same state. The SPI with which this started is dead. While the programmer was working I made some reading, 2 out of 8 didn't match. After swapping to the dead SPI and try to read it the programmer is back to not recognizing ics.

[stj]

Re: CH341a SPI / I²C programmer

you could replace the chip - i bet they cost pennies on aliexpress

[megaraider]

Re: CH341a SPI / I²C programmer

I was just doing what you suggested, taking measurements on the points by reading it with the multimeter, not sure if that's what you meant with "watch" (I do not have an oscilloscope).

Yes i meant an oscilloscope, but a multi meter (if with enough samples /s) set to V would work, or instead set to frequency reading.

My theory here was that CH341 is ultimately made of transistors, so while thinking in the situation, I took some tweezers and shorted every leg of the ic to gnd for about 10 seconds. Unexpectedly, when I plugged the programmer and pressed Detect, it gave me the list of ics, and let me do a proper reading after!!
I hope this doesn't sound too ridiculous, and I'll be happy to know your opinion. Maybe it was just luck and something else was involved, but apart from that, I only took readings.

That's good news
No ridiculousness involved. Sometimes transistors get 'over saturated' or the capacitors connected to them get 'stuck' and won't allow switching.
Nevertheless, imo should consider buying another unit since its life may be close to an end