Quick bench update: I tried to get a 32×24 pixel IR module talking over I2C and it just would not play ball—pull-ups, library swaps, address scans, nothing. First silly mistake was not bridging the I2C jumper. Even after fixing that, still dead. Under the microscope I spotted the real issue: poorly soldered pins on the IC. A quick reflow and some IPA cleanup later, it sprang to life. Moral of the story: if yours won’t talk, check the underside soldering. Project video coming soon.
I thought I’d do some experiments with one of these simple IR modules
so this gives us 32 by 24 pixels
so just a quick video on a few of the issues I came across that were slightly silly
so when I plugged it in and I tried to get it to work over I2C
it didn’t work at all
I tried various things, pull up resistors, different versions of the library
scanning the I2C interface to try and find the address
nothing worked
now obviously my first mistake was not putting a blob of solder on this jumper here
to make it use I2C
but I put that on and it still didn’t work
and initially I was thinking this must be dead on a live or the board just doesn’t work
so I thought I’d have a look under the microscope and see what was going on
I did a quick bit of probing
it’s just focusing
and what I found was it was the soldering on this IC
so these pins were not soldered particularly well
so I touched up the soldering just reflowed the joints
and magically this board burst into life and now it’s working
there’s a bit of IPA on there at the moment
because I’ve done a bit of cleaning on it just to clean off some of the flux
but yeah
so simple fix
so if you do ever get yourself one of these boards and you find it’s not working
it’s worthwhile having a quick look at the soldering on the underside
and just seeing if this chip is actually soldered on properly
but it’s working now so I can get on with my project
so thanks for watching
and there’ll be a project video coming soon using this module
so stay tuned