UART (not the board itself) stopped working after connecting 5V to GND, can it be recovered?

Question

I accidentally connected UART wires one row lower than it should be (see image): then I unplugged them shortly after that and then connected correctly, but serial console doesn't work anymore. USB was not connected at all, so pi was powered over GPIO. I've looked at a several posts where people bricked their zero's totally, but my zero works fine except UART and maybe GPIO at all but I don't know how to check latter.

1. Can Pi zero 2W be recovered after this kind of UART connection?
2. How can I diagnose if UART is really dead? Maybe check any pins with a multimeter?
3. I also think this is result of a static charging. How can I check that and/or discharge PCB?

Answer 1

If a UART GPIO is damaged that is a permanent failure and can not be fixed. In fact the damage can spread to adjacent GPIO causing them to fail and eventually the whole board may be damaged.

To check the GPIO you can use my gpiotest script.

#!/bin/bash

skipped=""
tested=""
failed=""

usage()
{
   cat <<EOF
This program checks the Pi's (user) gpios.

The program reads and writes all the gpios.  Make sure NOTHING
is connected to the gpios during this test.

The program uses the pigpio daemon which must be running.

To start the daemon use the command sudo pigpiod.

Press the ENTER key to continue or ctrl-C to abort...
EOF

   read a
}

restore_mode()
{
   # $1 gpio
   # $2 mode

   case "$2" in
        0) m="r" ;;
        1) m="w" ;;
        2) m="5" ;;
        3) m="4" ;;
        4) m="0" ;;
        5) m="1" ;;
        6) m="2" ;;
        7) m="3" ;;
        *)
           echo "invalid mode $2 for gpio $1"
           exit 1
   esac

   $(pigs m $1 $m)
}

check_gpio()
{
   # $1 gpio
   # $2 i2c

   m=$(pigs mg $1) # save mode
   L=$(pigs r $1)  # save level

   s=$(pigs m $1 w)

   if [[ $s  = "" ]]
   then
      f=0
      tested+="$1 "

      # write mode tests
      $(pigs w $1 0)
      r=$(pigs r $1)
      if [[ $r -ne 0 ]]; then f=1; echo "Write 0 to gpio $1 failed."; fi

      $(pigs w $1 1)
      r=$(pigs r $1)
      if [[ $r -ne 1 ]]; then f=1; echo "Write 1 to gpio $1 failed."; fi

      # read mode tests using pull-ups and pull-downs
      $(pigs m $1 r)

      if [[ $2 -eq 0 ]]
      then
         $(pigs pud $1 d)
         r=$(pigs r $1)
         if [[ $r -ne 0 ]]; then f=1; echo "Pull down on gpio $1 failed."; fi
      fi

      $(pigs pud $1 u)
      r=$(pigs r $1)
      if [[ $r -ne 1 ]]; then f=1; echo "Pull up on gpio $1 failed."; fi

      $(pigs pud $1 o)   # switch pull-ups/downs off
      $(pigs w $1 $L)    # restore original level
      restore_mode $1 $m # restore original mode

      if [[ $f -ne 0 ]]; then failed+="$1 "; fi
   else
      skipped+="$1 "
   fi
}  2>/dev/null

usage

v=$(pigs hwver)

if [[ $v < 0 ]]
then
   echo "The pigpio daemon wasn't found.  Did you sudo pigpiod?"
   exit
fi

echo "Testing..."

for ((i=0;  i<4;  i++)) do check_gpio $i 1; done
for ((i=4;  i<16; i++)) do check_gpio $i 0; done

if [[ $v -ge 16 ]];
then
   check_gpio 16 0
else
   skipped+="16 "
fi

for ((i=17;  i<28; i++)) do check_gpio $i 0; done
for ((i=28; i<30; i++)) do check_gpio $i 1; done
for ((i=30; i<32; i++)) do check_gpio $i 0; done

if [[ $failed = "" ]]; then failed="None"; fi

echo "Skipped non-user gpios: $skipped"
echo "Tested user gpios: $tested"
echo "Failed user gpios: $failed"

See https://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Testing for details.

Answer 2

First you should NEVER connect the 5V pin of a serial adapter to the Pi (most sites warn of this).

Second what you have ACTUALLY done is connect -5V to GPIO pins. If you are lucky only these 2 pins are damaged, but in all likelihood the whole SoC (or GPIO bank) is dead.