Is my picaxe broken?

I have a picaxe 08m2 in a small breadboard. Leg 2 has a 10k resistor connected to 0v and i have a 470ohm resistor protecting an led on leg 7. I'm using a USB cable to power the picaxe so its about 5 volts. I was told to connect a little capacitor from 5v-0v for stability i think. The led wont light up and i know that it is a working led. I wasn't sure if you needed a 10k or 22k on leg 2 so i tried 10, then 22, then both connected to 0v and nothing happens still. Lighting an LED in electronics is the equivalent to outputting Hello World in programming yet i still can't do it.


How can i produce a schematic instead of taking photos?

You can produce a schematic using the Rev-Ed approved DesignSpark (free) software - click Free Software at the top of this page. Producing a schematic won't help you anyway as the problem is in your physical layout - you have the voltage rails shorted and both pins of the capacitor connected to each other. In order to correct the problem, remove the blue jumper wire that is just above the blue capacitor in the photo and place the capacitor where the jumper was.

Also, it looks like the 470ohm resistor is short circuited by the breadboard. When you finally get power to the PICAXE (refer the Nick's post, above), you are risking damaging the PICAXE drivers behind the pin that is connected dirctly to the LED.

It would also help reduce confusion if you used blue jumpers for 0v connections and red for +5v rather than using both for both.

Okay thank you very much for the help. I obviously don't understand how things are connected to a breadboard. I fixed the capacitor and led + 470ohm leg position and also put in a black wire for 0v. Everything seems to be working and nothing is heating up So what i was doing wrong with the components was having both legs on the same rail? like there was a rail with 5 holes and i had both capacitors legs on it instead of having a leg on one rail then the other leg on another rail. Sorry if its confusing

Just to clarify, this image shows how the holes are connected to each other on your breadboard:



Attached file is the above made in DesignSpark for you to design prototypes on.

Awesome, thanks nick