Saturday, February 19, 2011

I am devistated!

I managed to burn out two voltage regulators when I hooked up to the LiPo battery for the first time.  Anyone have a clue why because I don't!  My multimeter says 8.1VDC which is well within the 7-12VDC recommendation from Arduino.  Now I have the 8.1VDC hooked up to the 5V port which works but I don't know for how long.

Second issue is that the long-awaited jumpers aren't working out like I thought they would - mainly because they are too long.  I tried cutting them back but then they no longer contact solidly which means I will have to solder to the pins.

Minor issue is the slider switch I glued into place - I managed to glue the sliding switch itself by putting too much adhesive on the sides which leaked into the open canal for the switch inside.

4 comments:

  1. what amperage is the regulator rated for? that's why I always burn em out it seems. just too much amperage.

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  2. Another guy at work asked the same question... I thought the current is limited by what the regulator is supplying voltage to (in this case, the Arduino Nano only pulls about 10-20mA). I am going to get you the actual part the used and see if they lied to us about the input tolerances. I had no problem when I tested the whole setup on a 9V battery.

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  3. I can't say from experience as I've never used a Arduino, but it's very similiar to the Netdunio I've been using. The way the Netduino works is it has two possible inputs for the main power:
    1. a 7.5-12V input at pin 24 (Vin), when used, this outputs 5V on pin 21 (I think, don't have my specs immediately handy).
    2. a 5V input at pin 21 (again, I think)
    Hooking up 8.1V to the 5V input could possibly damage your Arduino. Again, I don't know for sure as I've never worked with an Arduino, but the Netduino is pin compatible with Arduino shields, so the pinout should be the same.

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  4. Oh...I should mention the pins I mentioned above are on the Netduino Mini...but I know the Netduino (regular) is pin compatible with the Arduino Shields.

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