Which board did I damage?

Arducopter was flying fine for about 10 flights over the last 4 days. Today, hovering about 4 ft off the ground the heli did a flip (for no reason, it was in stable mode) and landed upside down. After repowering, 2 ESCs were sounding error codes (rapid beep), so I thought maybe I blew some ESCs or motors.

After rebooting, though, I could give rudder input and 2 motors would spin even though the Green LED was solid (indicating the "unarmed, safe to move" condition). Stranger still, I repower the board an hour later, and the heli initializes and I am able to arm it and the ESCs all work again. I even test hover over some grass. I land a bit hard and then the problem reappears.

Now at home, however, I cannot re-arm the board. Configurator does not show any Tx inputs. I know the Rx is good, since I switched it out with another known good one and double confirmed using a standard servo. My sensors all respond in Configurator. The board boots normally (flashing R G B, then solid Green).

I just do not know which board is damaged? I'm assuming it's the lower Mega board (since it's the one with the servo headers, plus it's cheaper), but want a more informed diagnosis.

Was fun while it lasted :^(

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • If you have those bullet connectors between ESCs and motors, make sure to check they all have good contact.

    In my case I found several of them were rotating freely also when mated, causing bad electrical contact. I soldered them up solid.

  • I checked the pin connections as best I could and they seemed to be ok. I noticed that there is a blue led on the mega board (red board) that indicates the link status to the Rx. At boot, sometimes it will light up (good) and sometimes it stays off, so I think it has something to do with the trace that leads to the Rx input.
  • check all your connectors, check if all pins are correctly soldered on both (the red and the blue) board

    check your motor connections, check ESC power connections

     

    i don't think that one of your main boards is damaged

This reply was deleted.

Activity

Neville Rodrigues liked Neville Rodrigues's profile
Jun 30
Santiago Perez liked Santiago Perez's profile
Jun 21
More…