I'm an Idiot!

[PJ-27]

Just plugged a battery into my 2x10 Sabertooth with the polarity reversed (deans wired differently...) little pop and hiss, and now it's not working.

The instructions say It will DESTROY the Sabertooth (Their wording, my caps...)

Anyway, I can't afford to buy another Sabertooth, so anyone got any ideas of how to fix it?

Just about to check the capacitors, but they look fine. On the underside though there is a nice burn mark in between 2 of the TPC8071's. (Can't think what they're called.....)

Thanks!

[Anttazz]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Send it back and tell them it came like that

[Mouldy]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Standardize your deans connections before buying a new one... Look at the deans connector head on so the connections look like a T.... put the horizontal connector as your possitive and your verticle connection as your neutral... thats what i do.

Ive got a 2x10a kicking around if you cant get urse repaired, ill sell you it cheap.

[typhoon_driver]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Drop them an email and ask what is likely to have gone. And yes you are an idiot

[jonny]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

i'd email dimension engineering and see if they'd be able to repair it if you sent it to them. although the postage/repair costs may be almost as much as buying a new sabretooth

[widow_twanky]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

If it's less than a year old the dimension engineering do a 'no quibble' guarentee. I've done this before and they replaced it without a problem.

You wont get charged for it but those nice people at customs and excise may want their pound of flesh on the return journey.

Andy

[PJ-27]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Sorry should have mentioned, it's 2nd hand. It already had Deans connectors on it, wired the opposite way round I do it, hence my stupid event.

I've emailed Dimension Engineering, but in the manual after the DESTROYED statement it says If you are stupid enough to wire it the wrong way round it'll void your warranty So I'm not expecting much from them...

I've checked the capacitors, they're fine. On the underside, the copper plate between a couple of the TPC8071's has broken apart, and a tiny little black component (don't know what these are, there are 6 in total on the back and some have 3 digit numbers) was all black and burnt, so I'm assuming that's kaput........

I might have to take you up on that Dave.

Cheers Gary

[PJ-27]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Just a quick update on this.

Dimension Engineering offered to replace my controller (despite it being my fault) and sent me out a new one. Very impressed!

Unfortunately they haven't sent the R/C version (which is what I had) and with those 2 big heat sinks now doesn't fit in my robot....

[joey_picus]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

The heatsinks should come off with a little persuasion, they're only attached by heat transfer compound.

[PJ-27]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Interesting....

As reluctant as I am to take 'persuasion' to my brand new, shiny ESC, I fear I may have to...

Cheers.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Unfortunately they haven't sent the R/C version (which is what I had)

A quick look on the web shows me that the R/C version has receiver leads soldered to the board, whereas the non R/C version just has screw blocks.

I'm not sure what connections the screw blocks are for but I imagine you should just be able to plug two receiver leads into them. There appear to be four terminals, so I'd imagine a communal positive, a communal negative and two signal terminals?
If so, just get hold of some old/broken servos, chop the wires off, and attach to the controller. Then again, I've never worked with Dimension Engineering products so I could be completely wrong!

[PJ-27]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

No your spot on. The issue was that the heat sinks made the unit slightly larger.

I just gritted my teeth and levered the PCB off the mount and stuck it to the old one.

Not too sure why there are screw terminals at all. I may take them off and solder straight to the board, one less thing to break.

[typhoon_driver]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

If I remember right there are other ways of controlling the sabertooth outside of using receiver signals. This allows you to easily swap the input over.

[Anttazz]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

Can you not email them about them sending a different one to the one you returned?

[PJ-27]

Re: I'm an Idiot!

I could, but it would be a bit cheeky since they sent this one free of charge.

Too late now anyway, it's in Spinza and working fine. Only I've just discovered the motors I'm using don't actually have enough torque to turn the robot.... Nice straight line speed and acceleration though! Just can't turn.........