Fix a fried Arduino Mega

Sometimes you may do something stupid, other times it is totally inexplicable but as a result of whatever events, the green power light on your Arduino stopped coming on. In my case it turned out to be a burned out voltage regulator.

This inscrutable is a explanation on how to replace it and identify the problem. I couldnt find anything online that explained how to fix a dead Arduino so this may help some people.

(keep in mind that your Arduino could have something else fried, so this wont work in every case)

But also this may work on a regular arduino, if in fact you did burn out the voltage regulator, since they both use the same part.

Step 1 Looking for the problem

I was working on interfacing an Arduino Mega with an Irobot Create platform, when for some strange reason i got a power surge on the USB port and the Arduino shut off seemingly for good.

When plugged in, the big overcurrent inductor (in the image below) on the board would quickly heat up, the board wasn’t recognized by the pc and no lights came on.

After thinking what could possible be wrong, the voltage regulator came to mind. It takes whatever voltages go into the power supply and brings it down to 5 volts that is needed for the ATmega chip. The regulator on the board is the: MC33269D-5.0

Go here for the datasheet:http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/12048/ONSEMI/MC33269D-5.0.html

it comes in two packages that do the same thing but look a little different, your arduino may have either one.

Comments

[DigitalOSH]

Just touched my UNO to the shell of my metal macbook pro... thought it was shot. Thanks for helping me save my brand new purchase (came today!)

[Chowmix12]

It doesn't have to be ugly.. I made mine parallel to the board with some creative soldering.

[korostelevm]

Great job! Looks awesome! Did you use the instructions?

[Chowmix12]

Yep, the i'ble helped with the pinouts... Thanks!

[alphaman1101]

I think id probably run that regulator off board, that looks really ugly. but heck, it works. Good way to save a 50$ board:)

[nagkiller]

Great!!!

[everywhere]

you could also buy an smd 7805 and put it on it would look better

[korostelevm]

I just had the 7805s on hand at the time, if im buying a new regulator i might as well just get the exact one that was on there originally lol

plus its weird now the original regulator had the pins arranged (the ground isnt in the middle) , the surface mount 7805 would have the wrong order and its impossible to twist those things around to match them up like with the big 7805 package

[everywhere]

oh i don't have that proplem as i work at a place that repairs laptops and cellular phones so i can "barrow" the parts

[kyle brinkerhoff]

oh man thats ugly! but hey if it works, thats all its gotta do! next time before you do this (because i know you will cause itell get broken off ) trim the leads down and try to make it work as if it were a smd component it'll last much longer

[the_burrito_master]

Nice work! I have a dead arduino dueminalove, im pretty sure the problem is the atmel 328p-up I'm planning on getting it fixed by/after Christmas.

[TOCO]

Cool instrucable. when I saw the picture of it fixed i couldnt help myself. I bust out laughing at frankenregulator. But hey if it works you just saved yourself $60 on a new arduino mega.