Posted by Bill Raymond on February 6, 2009 at 10:07am
Hey guys, I was setting up my autopilot system for my senior thesis "Building a UAV for Remote Sensing and Cartographic Applications" when I guess I burnt it out. No power to the board, including direct power, and yes i switched the jumper. :-(.... The whole board seems toast. I ordered two new boards today. I followed the wiring diagram and all. I'm thinking there was a surge somehow. If you guys have any ideas let me know....P.S. The programers won't even read the board :'-( Take care and keep up the good work...I'll be posting pictures soon
It doesn't necessarily, but it does help for sizing/payload planning, plus I'd rather set the first one up using a known good configuration. Just call me paranoid chicken... ok please don't!
No idea of amp load, I'm afraid. I've got all the sensors and such, just haven't bothered to hook them up yet. Why does it matter? (Ardupilot doesn't care)
Chris,
Thanks for the reply. I looked right at that page too! I understand regarding attention to detail, I've not powered my board up as I've been unavailable, so I'll just double-check the soldering. Regarding the Super's setup. Do you know what type of amp load your plane uses for take-off and just cruising?
My Superstar setup is the one listed here. All Futaba equipment, standard servos.
All the ArduPilot pages have been updated to show the current version of the board, with the built-in power supply.
Most of the "toasting" I've seen is in sloppy soldering of pigtails and the like, where V+ touches data lines. That will fry a processor pretty quickly (I've done it myself). At $25 a board, it's hardly worth trying to replace the chip; might as well just get another board and be more careful the next time.
Clearly folks have had success in completing the setup of these boards. I'm curiouse is the "toasting" occuring during the flashing process or is it during later setup?
@Chris - Can you share the planes setup you used during flight testing? I'd like to compare your setup to what I'm planning on using. Interested in motor, esc, amp draw (high load and low load numbersif possible), the model/type of servo used on the rudder.
Anyone - If/when folks use the earlier board or one of the ones they setup from the pcb, is it just safer to get a voltage regulator to run through? Any suggestions on one to use?
Just to be clear, boards made after 1/26 have a built-in voltage regulator. (You can see it here). On those boards, if you want to use an external battery, solder a bridge over that solder jumper and connect the battery to the BATT +- pins.
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Yeah, that was one of my concerns; I'm using parts from an RC-Helicopter including a pretty hefty LiPo battery. I'd much rather have a nice, consistent power from a dedicated ArduPilot battery without fear of power spikes. So maybe I am totally overlooked it somewhere, but where would one plug in a separate battery? This is assuming that the solder jump was completed below the PSEL if OUT 1 and 2 are used for say, elevator and rudder respectivly. Is that what the available jumper ports labeled BATT+- section is for to the right of the unused Analog jumper ports? Forgive the obvious question, but I just want to be cautious!
So if your input is 6v across the servo pins, why can't you hook up a 6v battery pack (like 4x AA's) into the servo pins? (on the newer, pre-solder jumped boards)
Comments
Thanks for the reply. I looked right at that page too! I understand regarding attention to detail, I've not powered my board up as I've been unavailable, so I'll just double-check the soldering. Regarding the Super's setup. Do you know what type of amp load your plane uses for take-off and just cruising?
My Superstar setup is the one listed here. All Futaba equipment, standard servos.
All the ArduPilot pages have been updated to show the current version of the board, with the built-in power supply.
Most of the "toasting" I've seen is in sloppy soldering of pigtails and the like, where V+ touches data lines. That will fry a processor pretty quickly (I've done it myself). At $25 a board, it's hardly worth trying to replace the chip; might as well just get another board and be more careful the next time.
@Chris - Can you share the planes setup you used during flight testing? I'd like to compare your setup to what I'm planning on using. Interested in motor, esc, amp draw (high load and low load numbersif possible), the model/type of servo used on the rudder.
Anyone - If/when folks use the earlier board or one of the ones they setup from the pcb, is it just safer to get a voltage regulator to run through? Any suggestions on one to use?
Hi i managed to mess up the link to the photo of the regulator and solder jumper Chris posted above , here is the photo.
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