Funny? Teensy bricker with a degree ... ;-)

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fms1961

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Just as funny (or should I say: sad?) story ...

How to easily brick a Teensy without any lines of code or even without any power supply ...

Well, the first case goes some month back ... I read in some comments of Paul, that the micro USB port of the Teensy is very sensitive in terms of mechanic and so it should be handled with care. This is reasonable. So of course I will not heavily drag the USB cable, goodness beware! :) Well, the other day, while soldering a different PCB, I accidentally swiped the Teensy off the table with my left arm - the little thing was laying in front of me, running a test sketch. I saw the Teensy taking an elegant ballistic curve going down towards the floor - pure concrete in this case. So a reflex gained control over me and I grabbed - without any thougt - what was flying through the air in front of me. But this was the USB cable. So I got to the end of the cable to get my Teensy - but only found a single, very lonely USB port with any PCB connected on it ... The remaining part of the Teensy was laying on the concrete - now without any possibility of an USB connection - besides a solution which needs some soldering. Well, so one thought runs through my brain: "Didn't Paul warn you before?" Well, you know ... ;-)

The second case happened yesterday. While handling something on my table, again I swiped a PCB from the table. But I only remarked a non soldered PCB, nothing else. Later on, while walkin' around in my house, I almost slipped because my left slipper was very slick. I had no explanation for that. As I'm already a little handicapped in terms of walking, I remarked an unknown and strange feeling at my left foot, but also could not really explain what it was. So I tried three or four times to strap the foreign material away (which I was resuming) like an old chewing gum or what it would be. No success ... So I took the slipper off and looked at the sole - and got a little horrified: there was a Teensy crammed up to the header in the rubber sole. I hoped it would have "survived" and levered it off the sole. But the frustration was big - some parts had been gone with the grinding of my sole on the floor to "unstick" was was underneath ist. In effect, the little switch was rubbed in it's parts, the lower inner part is now visible on the board, but the upper part of the mechanic is gone. So I have another mechanical bricked Teensy - it comes faster than you think!

And the message of the story: be aware of Paul's warning: never drag the USB cable connected to a Teensy, and never walk on a Teensy itself - it will not survive it (despite with some soldering effort, the Teensy might be "unbricked", but not for sure, because it's not clear if the PCB is functional). :cool:
 
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Hey fms1961,
Sad to hear about your Teensys, but... well, thanks for detailing your stories with this amount of humour :D
 
Sad indeed -

PJRC was looking out for you ;) The new T_3.5 and T_3.6 will minimize the chance of at least one if not both of those events - the USB connector having the through hole soldered mounting - and the larger 2.4" size might have been easier to see what it was as it fell and harder to step on without seeing it - and maybe too big to stick in the sole.

Of course with the 2.4" Teensy's my work spaces are seeming 70% smaller and more cluttered.
 
Sorry this happened to you twice!

Maybe it would be good to mount your next Teensy in a project box. Although the Teensys lack mounting holes it's possible to mount them on perfboard with mounting holes.
 
Hopefully the new USB connector will be able to withstand more abuse.

Did you get a beta test board? You're on the list of beta testers. :)
 
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