[dlotts]

Our board worked for at least 30 minutes. Then the next time we tried it appeared completely non-functional, with no LED's lighting. Maybe the ground and plus voltage got switched one time, we don't know.

We tested the voltage at the inputs, and they were correct.

Then we tested the voltage across the PIC chip at the Vdd and Vss pins. It showed a consistent 0.36 volts -- way lower than the expected 5.0V. We read the same voltage between the ground and the output of the regulator.

We de-soldered the regulator, and replaced it with a larger 7805 regulator that we had on hand, probably 1 Ampere. We used short pieces of wire so we didn't have to make the larger part fit.

Since we'll probably want to have a second one on hand at the competition, we figured we didn't have much to lose by attempting to repair it.

Then the school kicked us out and we didn't get much chance to clean up our solder and try it.

I'll let ya know how this worked out later.
MrLotts.