Hello LMRians,
So, i have " finally " done it. I smoked the 4 channel motor controller.
I have to admit, it was a silly mistake, i think it was pure bad luck as well.
I had connected the GND part of the battery voltage, and had left the VBAT part disconnected. I was on my way to power up the motor driver, connected the GND logic to the microcontroller, also connected the VCC( not yet to the microcontroller) , but the other end of the VCC suddenly touched the positive terminal of the 11.1 V battery ( that was left disconnected earlier) , and the rest was magic smoke.
I didn't know what to do, just ripped the connections apart, and took a close look at the motor controller, i find one of the many ICs used, burnt. It is depicted as U5 in the motor driver, its partly burnt, a little, but it seems, that's all it takes to damage an electronic device. Below is the picture, not the actual smoked one, but the IC inside the red box, is smoked right now.
The sadder part, i was using it with the rover 5 as a part of a competition, that's 3 days away. My only alternative now, is to use a pololu tb6612 fng motor driver. It too may get fried up someday, as it's weak for the Rover motors, but that's my only way now.
So, i wanted to ask, is there any solution to the board? I don't think so.
I should have contacted Dagu directly, but since OddBot might come across this post, is there a repairing service or replacement, or is getting a new one, the only alternative. Of course, too little, too late to use it for the competition.
Curse those dangling wires, should have taken note of them
Ashim