Connected USB and Battery - Burned out APM - Discussions

Hey gang,

Looking for a little guidance here. One of our fliers burned out his APM board and I'm attempting a repair. All the info I have right now is that he connected the battery as well as USB at the same time...I'm waiting on confirmation to hear if he connected the battery via the power module.

Details:

* Yes this is an original APM board

* Right now - when connected over USB, the board doesn't come up in the COM PORTS listing, and the 32U, or at least that general area gets hot to the touch (internal short methinks)

* The red LED above the 32U is dimly lit - other LEDs are fine

What I'm curious about at this point is this:

1) Is there a way to connect to the ATMEGA2560 directly via ICSP to verify if it still works? That would save me the trouble of unsoldering it and resoldering in a replacement

2) If so would I need a dedicated programmer like the AVR ISP MKII

3) The 32U will likely be replaced. Could you please point me in the direction of the bootloader/firmware that will need to be loaded on to that?

I'm still going through and testing parts to see if the regulators blew, but I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone else who might be able to provide some guidance.

We haven't looked into an RMA considering this was probably a case of user error, but I'd like to give this a go (free training right?)

Thanks in advance.

oh my gosh - I completely failed to credit you for donating that board....yes that was your board that was used to do the demonstration of both the minimosd firmware, and the kvteam firmware.

I have half a dozen of them in varying states of operational ability but that one is the 'special one'.. :)

The stuff I do isn't miracle work - anyone can do it, it's just knowing where to start that's usually the problem...side note here - but I got invited to an irc channel with a lot of the people developing the firmwares we use, and I was terrified of joining - I mean really what could I tell them that they don't already know...turns out the answer was quite a bit...

So if I can do that - anyone can...and that's been my mission to propagate :)

Replies

iskess March 3, 2014 at 8:36am

You are a tenacious one! I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. I have a few dead APM boards I could send you if you want. I don't know how you find the time with the new baby. I really enjoyed your detailed MinimOSD video. It's good to see that the organ donor board I sent you went to research. Fantastic work. You give back so much to this community!
Thank you.
- Lito P > iskess March 3, 2014 at 9:58am
  
  oh my gosh - I completely failed to credit you for donating that board....yes that was your board that was used to do the demonstration of both the minimosd firmware, and the kvteam firmware.
  
  I have half a dozen of them in varying states of operational ability but that one is the 'special one'.. :)
  
  The stuff I do isn't miracle work - anyone can do it, it's just knowing where to start that's usually the problem...side note here - but I got invited to an irc channel with a lot of the people developing the firmwares we use, and I was terrified of joining - I mean really what could I tell them that they don't already know...turns out the answer was quite a bit...
  
  So if I can do that - anyone can...and that's been my mission to propagate :)
Lito P March 3, 2014 at 6:42am

I think it might have been the jumper scenario - I forget which condition is bad for plugging in 2 power sources.

I did a little more research and it looks like I'm going to need to buy some extra gear - an AVR ISP MKII to interface with the Atmega to confirm if it's still working (plus it's just handy to have around), and a Silabs C2 programmer to fix one of the 3DR radio modules that are also on my bench.
- bblatter > Lito P March 3, 2014 at 8:29pm
  
  With two power sources plugged in, JP1 should be removed.
iskess March 2, 2014 at 6:07pm

I connect USB and battery frequently without any problems. What was his "user error"

This reply was deleted.