I received my Ardupilot board(328chip) the other day. I carefully soldered up the minimum connections and used the FTDI 5V breakout board to upload Ardupilot. I upgraded the Arduino to the latest. Something isnt right now. My problem started with my GPS. I have a EM401 which has a very different pinout than EM406, so I rewired the cable so everything would match. I plugged my ESC into the wrong side of the board, the side with IN (CTRL, 1,2,3,4). This was when I noticed the status light went out and the ESC got very very hot. I plugged the ESC into the OUT side(1,2,3,4) and same thing, ESC got real hot and status light went out. I thought maybe I wired up the cable wrong, so I used a standard 406 cable(no mods) and plugged in again. The ESC remained cool, but the MUX light is always on now(with GPS)and I only have the ESC plugged into the OUT side of the board, no other RC but just the EM401. I believe I have version 1 installed, but cant be sure now and it wont accept uploads, gives me 4 errors and says something about sync and expecting some hex value but getting another.I unplugged again and still with the 406 cable, plugged in power and MUX light is out. Everything with the 401 and 406 cable is the same functionally except the 401 has a reset on pin 3 while the 406 has Rx on pin3, but pin6 on the 406 is 1PPS, so I swapped those two.401: pin1 Gnd406: pin1 Gnd401 pin2: Gnd406 pin2: Vin401 pin3: reset406 pin3: Rx401 pin4: Rx406 pin4: Tx401 pin5: Tx406 pin5: Gnd401 pin6: Vcc406 pin6: 1ppsI swapped wires on the 406 cable so that the 401 would match up.Have I fried my brand new Ardupilot?Thanks if you can help.
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Thanks Chris, I finally hooked some servos up just for the heck of it. I fried something in the 74LS157D. That's the chip with the funny sheen to it. I tested it by putting the ESC into each of the 4 connnectors. When I got to the 4th, nada, nothing, it didnt work. The Mode light comes on, and the MUX light is on when I connect to each of the 3 other Output spots, but the MUX light is very dim. When I power up through the receiver with a servo connector connnecting channel 4 and the CTRL on Ardupilot, ESC directly to channel 3, the MUX light is very bright.
Is there a chance the 74LS157D is only burnt through the 4th output circuit?
I'm thinking I could replace the 74LS157D, but there is probably something else smoked like a capacitor.
The 401 isnt coming back to life. I cant get it to do anything anymore after last night. The voltage on Tx out is just solid when it should vary up and down. It doesnt work thorugh the FTDI or the TTL/Serial adapter.
I managed to 'kill' my Ardupilot with a short that stopped everything working. Luckily I noticed a tiny wisp of smoke when it happened and careful inspection showed that I had burnt a pcb track out. A quick wire link bridge and normal service was restored. Worth a look to see if there are any charred tracks that maybe open circuit.
You say you plugged the ESC in and the status light went out - how was the board getting power then, from the USB/serial port? It could be that both were trying to supply power and this caused your problem.
It sounds like you had a short in your initial solder setup. It wasn't plugging the ESC on the wrong side, since that wouldn't hurt the board, but maybe something to do with the GPS soldering.
If you have an AVR programmer you can check to see if you fried the chip.
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Is there a chance the 74LS157D is only burnt through the 4th output circuit?
I'm thinking I could replace the 74LS157D, but there is probably something else smoked like a capacitor.
The 401 isnt coming back to life. I cant get it to do anything anymore after last night. The voltage on Tx out is just solid when it should vary up and down. It doesnt work thorugh the FTDI or the TTL/Serial adapter.
You say you plugged the ESC in and the status light went out - how was the board getting power then, from the USB/serial port? It could be that both were trying to supply power and this caused your problem.
regards Peter
If you have an AVR programmer you can check to see if you fried the chip.