Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrés on April 6, 2011 at 11:24pm

Jonathan,

> If my memory serves me correctly, I accidentally pulled the rc battery off while the apm is still connected to the usb :( So I guess that did it :(

That shouldn't be the reason, as I do that all the time...


In my opinion, you are underpowering your APM. If you use the external supply 5V is not enough, because the voltage regulator needs a higher voltage to be able to supply 5V. Use a 2S Lipo as an external source (at least 7V). Once, I supplied also 5V there, and had a similar behaviour as you have (multiplexer was not working correctly).

Andrés

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Peter Seddon on April 7, 2011 at 4:19am

When I wanted to power my APM with 5v I shorted out the onboard regulator and it seesm to work very well.

Peter

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on April 7, 2011 at 7:30am

READ THIS before you do what Andrés suggested:

APM needs 5V, nothing else!

on the old version (1.0), there is an onboard voltage regulator, which can be used with more than 7V (but it has other input pins)

 

test your ubec, maybe it's damaged

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Andrés on April 7, 2011 at 8:00am

Hi Sebastian,

> I desoldered the sj1 jumper and provided an external 5v

This sentence suggests that he meant an external battery at the corresponding pins. If you supply less than 7v there, you get exactly what he was reporting. I did not want to encourage to feed the APM with 7v at the rc-input pins...

The new boards do not have a voltage regulator? The wiki does not state any change about that (http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Hardware) and in my opinion this wouldn't be an improvement...

Andrés

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on April 7, 2011 at 8:10am

the new board has a voltage regulator, but it is too small for the complete APM

• ▶ Reply

DistributorPermalink Reply by Martint BuildYourOwnDrone.co.uk on April 7, 2011 at 12:05am

Which APM are you using? V1.0 or v1.4, 1.0 has numbers 0-7 and 1.4 has numbers 1-8 on the servo connections.

Regards

Martin.

www.buildyourowndrone.co.uk

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Diaz on April 10, 2011 at 7:14am

Thanks for the feedback guys!=D

 

Andres,

 

Hmm Ok I'll try to power the apm then with a 2s lipo on the corresponding pins.

 

Sebastian,

Ok I'll also check my ubec as well

 

Martint,

Its v1.0

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alexandre Loones on July 5, 2011 at 7:08am

I've nearly the same problem..

 

I've a APM v1.4 and when i plug my 5V BEC, nothing happends. The APM doesn't boot or work. But when i plug it with usb, all works nice...

I've checked the BEC voltage with a multimeter : 5,0 V as expected..

So what's wrong with my APM and is it the same problem as Jonathan ??

 

Thanks.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jeb Bailey on August 22, 2011 at 1:08pm

I am having the same problem.  Using the 2560 board.  Everything works just fine when on USB, but I get only the solid yellow MUX light and red pwr light when on battery power.  Nothing on the shield lights up at all.

 

Checked over all the solder points, all looks good.  The ESC is working fine, as it properly powers my second APM (which is working fine).

 

Anyone have an idea?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Diaz on August 22, 2011 at 5:37pm

hmm try separating the power source of the apm, by shorting SJ1 at the apm and put in a different power source there.. that's what we did and it worked

• ▶ Reply