Smokes - Literally

#1

I took one step forward on the ROV and 3 steps back. Somehow (still uncertain what happened) I let the smoke out of the 2.6 OROV board. bah!!

After “The Event”, the motors were erratic, the IMU stopped responding the I could no longer connect to the ROV. It appears the Tenda adapter is damaged as I am able to connect by hooking up directly to the Ethernet port on the Beaglebone. I was also able to replace a blown cap (C37) which fixed the erratic motors and discovered the IMU had lost it’s ground connecvtion; must have blown a trace (Though I cannot see it) I ran a new GND between J1 Grounds and Pin17 of the DB25 connector. That fixed that.

So, I’m left with 2 issues: no connection through the Tether (Tenda adapter) and, the Starboard ESC is again messed up.

This is the second time I have the Starboard ESC go on me. I can attribute this time to my mistake 100%; I still don’t know what happened last time or, why it’s always the Starboard ESC crapping out.

Are the 2.7 Boards with built in ESC completely compatible with my 2.6 chassis, 2.6 motors and 2.6 DB25 Wiring harness?

I am thinking of going in this direction. I am not certain if I have repaired all the damage on my 2.6 board and as I will again have to wait at the mercy of our Canadian (slow and expensive) shipping system, I don’t want to replace just one component to find out something else is screwed.

Any opinions on this? What would you do?

Controller Dead Zone
#2

Hi Charles:

The 2.7 Controller Board is totally plug-compatible with the older 2.6 units. At this point I’m not even sure that we have spares of the 2.6 controller boards- if somebody needs a new board we recommend the 2.7 units. The new ESCs used on the 2.7 seem to be working much better than the units that we had on the 2.6, and if you get the board with the ESCs preinstalled, they also come pre-programmed and pre-calibrated.

Before plugging in a new controller board, I’d make sure that you carefully examine your wire harness and the starboard motor. Something was causing problems with your starboard ESC, and if it’s a short in the wiring harness or the motor, the same thing will happen once you plug the new controller board in.

-W

#3

Hello Walt, and thank you for the response.

I will go ahead and order a replacement 2.7 board with ESCs installed. Good point on checking the wiring, I plan to do so carefully. I also have have new motors on hand and can compare readings from those to the ones currently installed.

I’m still boggled by how I ended up here but moving on :smile:

#4

Walt,

I inspected and measured the wire harness and each motor gives me ~ 0.1 -0.3 ohms phase-to-phase. Seems ok to me; you? Is there anything else you can suggest I verify? I of course do not want to damage the new board

~ Charles

#5

Hello Walt, or others

Is there anything special to be done to calibrate the 2.7 Board with 2.6 motors?

~ Charles

#6

Nope. It should work just fine with the older motors.

-W