I know this is probably an easy electronics problem, but I'm looking for some direction.I plugged in my Arducopter hexa to a battery for the first time and got beeps and lights, but I also got smoke. The black wire leading from the PDB to the No. 5 arm ESC melted. No other damage I can see.I've ordered another ESC and PDB kit just in case, but I'm curious if anyone has an idea why it may have happened. Could a bad solder on the PDB cause it? I'm new to soldering. The other possibility is that the wire was underneath the PDB and could have been pierced by a sharp solder point because of pressure from above.
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Usually smoke means a short and intermittent or no power means a bad solder. But if a solder was really thin and too many amps were pulled, the solder would heat and melt.
A short can occur in a few ways, but look for the following. (1) the solder going wider than intended and crossing to a +; (2) a tiny filament of a wire not contained in the solder and touching a +; (3) laying the board on a conductive surface that connected the black to a +.
If you know how to use a volt meter, I'd also check the polarity of where the ECS black and red wires were soldered to make sure that where the black wire was connected is - and the red wire location is +. If it is a blown PDB, you don't want to lose another ESC.
Sounds like a short circuit on the PDB. I would advise with any soldering you check continuity before connecting power. On the PDB there should be infinite Ohms I.e. no connection between +'ve and GND. You can probably fix the PDB. The ESC maybe toast :-(
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Usually smoke means a short and intermittent or no power means a bad solder. But if a solder was really thin and too many amps were pulled, the solder would heat and melt.