Hello all.
A few days ago I've made a big screw-up when I've connected by accident the battery to my hexa with the inverted polarity.
The Power Module almost melted instantly, and of course the hexa died at the moment. Nevertheless the APM still lives for I connected it to the mission planner by USB and it works fine like if nothing had happened. Blessed Power Module!
So I decided to buy a new 3DR Power Module. Unfortunatelly now it's only sold with XT-60, when my hexa came all with Deans, but I thought that was a minor setback that could be resolved with an adapter.
So when my new Power Module arrived, it came without being wrapped with the heat-shrinking tube and the comparison was inevitable.
Besides the evident differences on the plugs, and the bad PM being with the solder in bad conditions, I've found out a big missing part in the new PM.
Please watch the enclosed pictures, and tell me if the new PM (with the XT-60) is really incomplete and have to send it back to the seller, or if it's just a more recent model and everything is fine without the need of that part.
I say thank you in advance for your help.
Best regards,
António Cabral
Replies
I've bought that new Power Module from here:
http://rc-innovations.es/Ardupilot-power-mudulo-amperimetro?filter_...
Is it possible that that missing part is intentional for more expert users instead of being a "complete" Power Module for "regular" users?
And I that thought that I was becoming an expert in drones, had to have this to show that I'm still a n00b in the matter. :-P
In your initial post you said you bought a new 3DR Power Module. You did not. That's not a 3DR Power Module. It's a clone, and a lousy one at that. There are a number of sellers with these units claiming they output 5 volts for the APM. However they lack the daughterboard which is the Texas Instruments PTH08080W Switching Regulator. Without this regulator board these cheap clone Power Modules can provide ONLY current and voltage measurements. They cannot 5 volts to the APM.
That not true of all clones, but of a lot of them. You can tell by closely examining pictures of it. If you can't see a second board attached to it, or there are five empty through holes in the middle of the board (where the TI regulator board is soldered into place) do not buy it!
My Spanish is pretty poor, but in the link you provided it appears the seller is claiming this clone Power Module supplies 5 volts. If that is indeed the case, the seller is either incompetent, or worse, deliberately being fraudulent to make a sale. Either would be enough for me to take all my business elsewhere.
Yes, you're right and the accompanying tunnel vision that occurs when you're trying to solder fat wire to a deans connector will result in more cross polarization and burn outs. I am amazed that the APM survived.
I am not surprised, because the APM wasn't connected to the PM due to the missing voltage regulator ;-)
So, bad luck (the missing part) was probably good luck in this case.
The one with the missing voltage regulator is the replacement, and was never used I got refund for that.
The old one is the one who melted due to the inverted polarity and thus have that aspect.
The APM is still working though, at least when I connected it by USB is was fine as usual.
I hope I wont have an unpleasent surprise when I finally have a new genuine power module.
Do yourself a huge favor. Practice soldering to learn how to do it right. Then solder XT60 connectors onto your batteries and anything else that gets connected between the battery and power distribution. The 3DR PM comes with XT60, and most power distribution boards come with XT60. Ditch the stacks of adapters. Everyone one of those adapters is a point of failure that you do not need.
Well, I've learnt that lesson in this case. I know how to solder, just have a thing for soldering batteries, and for sure I would prefer to have all with XT-60 from the start in the drone, and specially for the batteries to come standard with the excelent XT-60 plugs. With those it would be impossible to have accidents like I had.
should I ask the obvious? Why aren't they making the PM with the deans connectors any more? Sorry if this is common knowledge. Haven't been keeping up with my group comments lately....
I ask myself that same question. When I bought my ARF it was all deans with an XT-60 to Dead adaptor for the battery. Now it's all XT-60. At least they could have been coherent and keep selling both options, otherwise we'll have to be soldering to readapt some piece everytime we need to change some part.
Yep. The daughterboard is definitely missing from your new power module.
Sorry, man.
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