I am building the 'start here' robot. It's the first time I've ever built a robot and the first time I've ever done something like this at all, so bear with me as my terminology is possibly all wrong.
I've attached a picture of my set up
Now I'm not entirely sure what happened. I programmed my Sharp and then the debugging window came up. The number at the top just kept running up and up and up. I tried to find out if this was normal, the b0 responded to the sharp, but the numbers do keep changing constantly, when nothing is in front of the sensor the numbers flit between 55 and 70.
Right before I did this I'd tested my motors (with the sharp plugged in) and they worked fine. Then once I plugged in and debugged the sharp, the L293D started heating up to ridiculous degrees and the motors were non-responsive.
I took out the batteries and unplugged everything.
When I put the batteries back in with nothing in it, the L293D still rapidly heated up. I figured this must be something to do with the motors, so I rewired them. I plugged everything in again, the chip didn't heat up, and the motors worked.
Then when I ran through the programming again, the chip started overheating again and the motors refuse to respond.
Now I can't do anything to make the motors respond anymore. I'm worried I've literally fried everything on the board by doing this.
Can anyone think of what's gone wrong?
I know I'm a huge idiot, so there's no need for pointing that out please.
All the wiring on the board seems legit. Can you take a pic of the underside or different angle on the motors. I think I see a few exposed ends which could be the source of the problem.
Hey everyone, thanks for reading. The problem was solved as I asked for some attention in the shoutbox (I know, not really for that kind of thing).
Dan M and Chris the Carpenter, by some deduction found out that the issue was to do with bad soldering of the motor connectors. I re-soldered them and the robot is exploring my kitchen as we speak.
The reading of the sharp is fine it turns out. There is no issue there.
But, why the L293 is heating up when bad soldering is the issue? I mean, bad soldering can increase the resistance, or trigger a impulse by contact-no_contact-contact again and again… but why the L293 behave like this?
I’m probably not the best person to ask this, as I didn’t figure this out, but the problem was that the pins in my motor connectors were all soldered together, creating something called a solder bridge (? I think). this caused the overheating. Ask Dan M and Chris the Carpenter though, they were the ones that found out.
I see, so it was not bad soldering but wrong soldering
I once had a bridge too and couldN’t see it first…drove me crazy until I discovered it. Now, in doubt I always use my ohmmeter to check for shortciscuits.
hello Danau, i would like please to know if after you solved this problem, did the L293D still overheating ? and once more thing did you decoupled the L293D ?
