Glitchy Hardware
Hello guys,
I have been working on my Ardupilot project now for over three months, and have run into many obstacles along the way. A lot of my problems were simply due to inexperience and were solved by help from many of you here on the forum.
However, it seems that I have also been plagued with glitchy hardware, and I am wondering if I am the only one out there with this issue. My IR sensors and EM-406 GPS modules seem to be fine.
The problems I am having are with the Ardupilot Boards. I have ordered a total of three ATmega 328 boards and three shield kits . My first board was missing the small capacitor on the corner of the board near the servo outputs from the start, but it did seem to work for a while. With board one, our easystar was able to return to home, but never complete a waypoint mission… but eventually it stopped programming the EM-406 and the red LED on the GPS stays brightly lit no matter what. Thinking that the board might my problem, I ordered 2 more Ardupilot boards with shield kits. The second board would allow me to upload any code, it came from sparkfun with only the red LED on and no stat and lock blink cycle, so I am in the process of trying to return it. The third board only took the code when I held the reset button and released it exactly when the Arduino IDE read “compling binary….” at the bottom of the screen. After the initial trouble uploading code, subsequent uploads have been fine. However, sometimes when I powered on the third board the MUX light would glow dimly and nothing would work. Other times it had to be turned on five or more times to get the GPS red LED to glow dim (for it to properly program it). My first test flight with the third board lasted about 45 seconds, then I lost all control of everything. After retrieving the plane, it was clear something had burned out on the Ardupilot board… you can one of the traces is burned out on the underside of the board.
Does anyone have the Ardupilot system up and running? I am starting to lose faith in getting this project up and running. It seems that the only way to cure the glitches is to power the board on and off… sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.
I am wondering if the inconsistency of the Ardupilot hardware is something that others are also experiencing?
Jeff.
Replies to This Discussion
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
Jeff,
Very sorry to hear about your boards. There are now more than 3,000 ArduPilot boards out there, with a good fraction of them successfully flying. The main ArduPilot board is the only aspect of the hardware we don't make (it's made by Sparkfun), so I can't comment on overall quality control stats. But we've tested hundreds of boards from them and never seen any of the problems you've described. It may just be that you've had the bad luck to get a bad batch.
Anyway, if you'd like to send me your boards, I'll be happy to look at them, even though you didn't buy them from us. I can see how frustrating this has been for you, and it may be that I can spot something that you're doing wrong that could explain the run of problems.
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DeveloperPermalink Reply by Doug Weibel on -
Jeff, how are you powering your boards?
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Permalink Reply by Jeff on -
Chris: PM sent
Doug: I am powering the boards via the ESC through the wire that hooks up to throttle output. Also, when testing I sometimes have the throttle bypassed directly to the Rx, so then the power comes from the ESC wire, through the Rx, and to the board that way.
Any issues with powering the system this way?
Thanks,
Jeff
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
No, that should be fine. I'll be interested to see your boards when you send them. As I say, we've never seen problems like those.
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