AWS 45 - Coventry - 1st November 2014

[daveimi]

Oh wow will definitely be bringing some cash then

[Shakey]

I might sell some wheels and cubes if people want aswell?

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Might take cubes if theyre cheap enough. I have some decent ones but they are prone to flex a little bit.

[Rapidrory]

"Reading Uni; catering for all your antweight needs"

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Scott has put me in charge of sign ups and tech checks. As we leave for England very early Friday morning, it would make things easier if people are properly signed up by the end of Thursday. Anyone signing up Friday will still be included, it just makes my job a lot easier to collate the data from my home with internet than a hotel room in Birmingham.

[daveimi]

Hi, getting desperate and after some help. I sat down to charge antweight up last night, so plugged charger into this flying lead that looks a servo cable that I assumed was a charging Tpiece in the loom. The motors jumped and the receiver instantly became unresponsive. Didn't think too much about it but noticed it wasn't charging so physically unplugged the battery and plugged that directly into the charger. Battery charged up...no problem. Plugged everything back together and switched on, motors jumped but the receiver is completely unresponsive with no green LED. Wondered if I'd cooked the receiver (is this even possible?) so grabbed the receiver from my feather which is a radiolink job. Mucked about trying to plug this in only to get mixed up with cabling. Tried cables a couple of ways and green led flashed. So sat trying to unsuccessfully bind it to the hobbykind transmitter. Decided I must have something plugged in wrong so tried the power bec cable from battery in different positions. Got the same thing again, motors jumped and now what appears to be a second dead receiver.

Is there a chance I'm unwittingly cooking receivers by sending current the wrong way through the cable? Can this break them? I've been racing RC cars for about 20 years and I've never once had a problem, if it doesn't work you just stuff the cables in the other way round and the LED came on. The battery I have is a 300mah that came with the Robotwars101 kit and although I've tried the cables in different ways I've never known that amount of current be enough to kill two receivers in one night. Especially when using them with a sabertooth on 12v in my feather. Please can anyone at all shed any light on this and the ruddy thing is now dead, I have no more receivers and have no idea what's compatible with the hobbyking transmitter. Is it possible that my hamfisted ways have just burnt out two receivers, and if so does anyone have another compatible transmitter I can buy off them Sat morning as am desperate to attend. Like i say, am not new to this and usually really well prepared so finding it all a bit weird to be having stupid problems like this last minute.

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Calm down Dave. Whatever has happened, bring what you have along on Saturday and we'll get something running somehow, if we can't solve the problem before then.
First off, what speed controller are you running? I can't tell from the pictures you've put up before.
Also, what voltage is the battery?
It is possible to cook a reciever by plugging the battery in the wrong way round. You just need to isolate which part of the robot is the problem. Sounds like the battery is fine, so its not that. It'll either be the speed controller or the reciever.
When you plugged the battery into the charger first time, was it through the speed controller? As it is possible that the charger has cooked the speedo. If not, it may just be the reciever(s).
Either way, I can most likely lend you something on Saturday. After the fleaweight competition is over I can cannibalise one of my fleas for its reciever to lend you, and let you use one of my transmitters if it wont bind to yours. If its the speed controller, I can probably do the same thing, so we'll get it running somehow.
In the meantime, try and isolate exactly which part is the problem. It may just be wiring. Plug the battery straight into the reciever (the right way around!) and see if the lights come on.

[daveimi]

I’ve been using one of the robotwars101 kits so the motors plug directly into the receiver via servo boards and the battery pack comes through a switch harness and through a 2 pin plug into another of the receiver channels to supply power. There’s no ESC as such, sorry for being confusing. I plugged the battery straight into the receiver and the lights don’t come on, also tried both receivers in my feather and they won’t power up through my 2x12 Sabertooth.

I’m pretty sure what I’ve done is put the red 2 pin power supply plug from the switch circuit either the wrong way round into the receivers or have put it on to the wrong two pins. The motors spin when voltage applied and the battery is showing voltage. When I get home I will check what voltage the battery is but it’s a 4 cell nimh so am guessing it’s 4.8V. I’m pretty sure I’ve boiled the receivers by putting the power supply plug in the wrong way somehow. It’s a HK6s receiver and am massively grateful for your help 

Will definitely come along Saturday even if a meteorite blows my house up. Have hundred quids worth of diesel in the car n everything except robot packed up ready to go lol.

[Rapidrory]

Yeah, receivers don't mind the servo plug being reversed as they're designed for that, but they do mind if current is fed into them the wrong way round. If it is toast, they usually don't show any life and get rather warm to the touch when you try and run them normally (I should know; I have a whole box of dead receivers ). On the plus side, your ESC doesn't sound entirely dead; If it was then your motors probably wouldn't jump briefly on startup; they'd either be stuck on or stuck off.

I'll have enough spare electronics with me to build an entire antweight, so can lend you some bits to get running again if need be. I'll also have my scope-meter there, so can run diagnostics on it to make sure it's not gonna blow up another Rx as soon as we plug it in :L

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Yeah, sounds like the reciever(s). Bring it along and give it to Dr Rory. If you need a reciever I can lend you one after the FWS.