Problem with my arduino board

Question

I had attatched a GSM module to my arduino Uno board. The power had been switched on. The GSM 5V pin was connected to my board. I was still midway with my work so for some reason I gave an external power supply to my GSM module. Now smoke started coming out of my Uno board and a burning smell came from it. I immediately switched off the power supply. But now I am unable to burn sketches to my Arduino. It is showing error: Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions. On opening the serial monitor it says: Board at COM3 not detected.

Link from wher I bought the GSM module: http://www.ebay.in/itm/GSM-Module-SIM800-Quadband-better-than-SIM-900-or-SIM900A-Modem-with-SMA-Antenna-/252053758680?hash=item3aaf9322d8

Answer 1

Oops.

You let the Magic Smoke™ escape from your Arduino. Your Arduino is now somewhat dead. Depending on what died it may be repairable by replacing components, or it may be beyond resurrection and it'll be easier to buy a new one.

Now - why did it happen? Looking at the board in your link it should have been OK with the 12V power you provided, since it has its own regulator on board that can supposedly take up to 12V. So one of two things may have happened:

1. What you thought was 12V was actually higher than 12V and the regulator didn't cope with it.
2. You connected the power backwards, so -12V was pumped straight through everything.

There seems to be no polarity protection on the board as far as I can see, and many regulators, if connected backwards, will just pass the power straight through with little or no change to it. So my money is on having connected the power backwards. Now, that might not be your fault, since on that site I can see no mention of which polarity the power connector uses - whether it is pin-positive or pin-negative. The normal way (the way the Arduino board uses) is pin-positive, but that is not always the case.

Either way, the Arduino is now dead, and the GSM module may be dead as well. In fact the whole lot may be dead.