Discussions

hi all,

first post here and its with a problem, sorry :-/

i had tested funcionality with mission planner - all sensors and gps working fine.  i had all ESCs powered and calibrated - all motors spinning correctly.

suddenly the apm stopped responding over usb - it connects briefly flashing the rx tx leds but does not light the abc leds at all. after a few seconds the board shuts down, investigating further i found that the processor on the main board heats up very quickly when connected, i did not connect it again until i had access to an ftdi cable and tried again to see if the apm would run without the shield.

ftdi - only APM:
upon connecting the apm, the red power led lights up and the processor immediately begins to heat up. the serial port is detected by the host machine but we were unable to send or recieve any data - all attempts giving a timeout. no other leds show any activity.

usb - apm with shield:
connecting to usb the power leds on both boards light up and the processor begins to heat up again. at the very moment the imu powers up the rx/tx leds flash briefly, but no other leds indicate any activity. again the serial port is detected by the host machine but any attempt to establish a connection ends in timeout with no led activity on the board.

i have found a couple of similar threads and have to think that it looks like the APM is fried, though i really dont know what i could have done to cause it (i have video of the motors spinning and the apm/shield running perfectly just minutes before it died).  is there any other possible diagnosis for this or a clue as to what i have done to kill the board?

regards,

James