Team Kaizen - The Honey Badger

[Ocracoke]

So... yeah...

A FeatherTwo landed on my doorstep today so I went ahead and plumbed that in, went to turn the drive on and the whole thing has practically exploded from a electrical point of view with a zzzzzaaappp and then nothing. The whole thing is dead at the moment.

Isolated the weapon circuit, put back in the Beetleweight ESC (which we know works from the previous post) and I think it is the receiver that has exploded as when that turned on, the arm went down and kept on trying to move past the lowest point, causing the ESC to smoke (I know, limit switches but we ain't even got that far yet).

I've got the TX/RX from either Shu! or Osu to try yet but at the moment, The Honey Badger is dead in the water at the moment.

[Roboteernat]

Oh no! Has the feathertwo gone smoking? What did you change since it was running last and before putting in the controller?

[Rapidrory]

What version of the feather two did you get? And did you wire it in correctly? If you can get a photo that would help diagnose the issue.

[team death]

I know that feeling Michael, when things go fizzz-it feels bad
it will be interesting to find out whats gone wrong but its not allways
obvious, we are still pondering why our ragebridge blew.
I was thinking about buying a featherstwo for the weapons system
What voltage were you using?
Did you have a second speed controller in play ?
- so keep us informed about the outcome

[Ocracoke]

What did you change since it was running last and before putting in the controller?

I've not changed the drive wiring at all since 2.0.

I was thinking about buying a featherstwo for the weapons system What voltage were you using? Did you have a second speed controller in play ?

Voltage is 13.2v nominal (2x 2S1P LiFePO4 batteries). The only speed controllers I had in were the 2x TZ85A controllers for the drive and this FeatherTwo.

What version of the feather two did you get? And did you wire it in correctly? If you can get a photo that would help diagnose the issue.

I got a single channel FeatherTwo. Picture is as below (I think I have it wired in right, might be wrong):
DSCF6223.jpg

As I noted, when I plugged the drive link in, the whole thing went bang. On reflection, I possibly suspect that the draw through the RX with the two TZ85As and the FeatherTwo plugged in was too much for the receiver. Will go back to the car now and get the receiver for Shu! (The receiver for Osu isn't suitable), see if the drive is still functional and go from there.

[Roboteernat]

Looking at 5he picture it seems you may have wired the controller the wrong way round. The black wire from battery goes to the white wire which then goes into the red wire of the controller.
Looks like the colour change in the link connector has confused you thinking it was the black lead.

[Rapidrory]

Yeah, that'll kill it pretty hard...

[Ocracoke]

Shazbot is the best description I have for this. I thought at first that the picture, which was a recreation of the wiring loom after I disconnected the FeatherTwo and put in the Beetleweight ESC, was incorrect. However, I had recorded a video of this at the time when this took place and it confirms the polarity is wrong.

bad_wiring.png

Yeah, that'll kill it pretty hard...

Indeed, time for a complete rewire then I think. The TZ85A controllers also appear dead at this moment time.

[Rapidrory]

In future it's best to wire in the fuse first, or use a very thin bit of wire as a link. As long as the fuse blows, a FeatherTwo can often cope with being plugged in backwards. However if there's no fuse it's gonna go bang. Also probably best sort out the colour coding of your wiring to make it easier to keep track of.

If you need a new drive controller, a dual channel feather two would work nicely

[Ocracoke]

I agree, the wiring was done in a rush with what I had available (the white wiring was from The Honey Badger 1.0) and it has cost me here.

The slightly more annoying thing appears to be that none of the TZ85As appeared to have survived either. Robotic paperweight at the moment.

[Roboteernat]

Maybe, sometimes you may be able to get the TZS back depending on what has blown in the controller, have brought back some ESC from the dead before from my multirotors. I'd be happy to take a look at the TZS, maybe Rory could take a look at the featherTwo to see if he can repair that?

[Rapidrory]

If the BEC on the FeatherTwo was connected to the RX, it will have powered the RX backward and blown it. If the TZs were connected as well, it may have fed back down into them and made them unhappy too. But first try a new RX and check to see if they are actually dead.

You should always cut all but one BEC supply from the ESCs. They don't play well together even if they are all wired the right way round.

The feather two will be beyond economic repair if it's been plugged in backwards

[Ocracoke]

So I plugged in the substitute RX receiver and one of the TZ85As is working properly. The other one is working but I think requires reflashing, which I can do tomorrow.

Amazingly, the original RX is still working.

UPDATE: So feeling a bit "double or quits" at the moment, I replaced one of the TZ85A speed controllers with the FeatherTwo controller, made sure all the polarities were set correctly and plugged it in. Amazingly, it works and failsafes OK. If I can resurrect the borked TZ85A, then we are back in business.

[Rapidrory]

Excellent! Glad the FeatherTwo survived! 12v reversed must be a bit less instadeath than doing the same with 24v (you are by no means the first to plug one in backwards... )

[Roboteernat]

Hooray, glad things are working out!