Team Pompidou First Antweight Build/Questions

[TeamPompidou]

Thanks for the help , I did de solder the wires to the receiver , I cut the wires slightly to have the wires nice and clean at the end and soldered it back on to the ESC , but I had the same sort of problem , the wheels did move a little bit and the red light came on the Rx , I think I have damaged the Dasmikro with the amount of soldering I had done on it so I gave up and ordered a different ESC this one , https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bidirectiona ... 4023576343
it will be much more easy to set up I imagine!

[Kyro]

yes these esc's are good.

i am yet to have a problem with one.

the capacitor can be removed to save a little size and weight...

the only issue i have found is placement as the wires exit on both sides of it... this can be fixed by desoldering the wires on one side and resoldering in the opposite orientation, but if you would rather leave it be then just plan a little extra space either side for the wires to sit happily...

i am still using each and every one i have purchased and as i mentioned, they have all behaved themselves well... i have started using 2 bustophedon esc's as stacked, they are smaller and all wires exit on one side but
they do weigh a little more (around 13g after i have shortened the wires and hooked them together) and i do my mixing via my transmitter... you can find these cheaper from china if you are willing to wait...

there are better, smaller, lighter esc's available but i would say that these are the best bang for your buck by a decent margin

[LimaHotel]

It's worth soldering the DasMikro up again as cleanly as you can, taking a video of it not working (and hosting it unlisted on youtube or something), and then sending it to Bangood. If you've kept the original packaging, they're very good with refunds in my experience.
I can't view the picture you hosted on Imgur (it just links me to Imgur?), but I'd be surprised if you've actually done any damage to the DasMikro. It is entirely possible (or probable even) that you've just been unfortunate and been sent a dud.
Out of curiosity, did you get the DasMikro with or without mixing? I realise my limited experience is not a suitably large sample set, but I've only ever had success with the no built in mixing ones (6 ordered in 2 batches of 3) and only ever had failure with the built in mixing ones (4 ordered in 2 batches of 2).
Of course, that esc you've ordered for yourself now is significantly more rugged and resilient, so if you can find the weight for it, it is a better choice. Following in Kyro's example, I'm also playing with Bustophedons and they are heavy, but feel really solid.
Another thing I'm playing with is servo boards. I've got 10 of the green pcb domon servo boards (more info can be found in the dedicated topic) and whilst I don't trust them with more than 1 N20, for 2WD antweights they seem perfectly capable, dirt cheap, and practically weightless!

[TeamPompidou]

Okay so I soldered the new ESC to the motors and switch just about but the soldering looks fine , I then turned on the switch the ESC beeped and that's it , the motors are not moving when on and the Rx receiver doesn't light red . I then thought that maybe it will move when I try binding it to my controller (devo7) but then I don't think I binded it properly, but now the controller is not connecting to my other robot figgy , I released I should have loaded up a new one and then binded.
Anyone I have two questions , why can't I bind figgy back to the controller? and will my new robot work when I bind it to the controller? I think one of the problems why they weren't binding was because the battery's in my controller were running out , next time I try I will add new battery's.

[TeamPompidou]

Okay I got figgy binded back to the controller.Yesterday the Rx receiver went red for a little bit and then it went off and now it's not going red again , strange . Do you think my Rx receiver is broken or is it a problem form somewhere else , soldering to the motors ( it's alright )? Or is the ESC broken I'm not sure (although power gets to it ) so should I order a new ESC ?

[MarkR]

Difficult to tell.

Do you have a multimeter? If so, set it to resistance and measure the resistance of everything (powered off!) which should have resistance, check for short circuits.

A N20 motor should have (idle / stalled) resistance of 6-20 Ohms (mine generally read about 12), if it is much less (e.g. < 3 ohm) then it's probably short. If it is much higher (> 20 ohm) it might be open-circuit. Obviously if you have two in parallel, then expect half the resistance.

Electronics supplies (e.g. 5v) should read in the kohms range, typically 10-100k, if it's > 1Mohm it's probably open, if it's less than 10k, probably short.

I am guessing that if your PWM signals are shorted (to ground), it will make the RX very unhappy, but not until it gets a signal from the transmitter. PWM signals may normally read approximately "open circuit" even when connected, the electronics should have high impedence when not powered.

If you have a bench supply, it will probably be able to tell you approximately how much current is being drawn, and cut off if the current is unreasonably high. Lipo batteries unfortunately, do neither.

[TeamPompidou]

Alright I don't have a multimeter so maybe I should get one , I understand some bits of what you saying and some is abit confusing for me but I get what your saying , I have shortened the wires to the motors , would that be the problem?

[Kyro]

its doubtful that shortening the wires would cause issues unless you did a terrible job of it...

i would troubleshoot each component to narrow down the problem... receiver, esc, then motors... if you have any spares of anything, try switching things around and see where that leads you...

if not, maybe borrow from another bot... im sure just switching the receivers over would help narrow the problem down... if your first bot has the same problems, its likely the receiver if not, and your other bot is still playing up, then it could be the esc... failing that disconnect one motor and check again, if still problems, reconnect that motor then disconnect the next motor and test... if anything works during this then its possibly a bad motor, if not it looks like the esc...

my money is on a bad esc as dasmicro's are hit and miss

[MarkR]

Alright I don't have a multimeter so maybe I should get one , I understand some bits of what you saying and some is abit confusing for me but I get what your saying , I have shortened the wires to the motors , would that be the problem?

Yes, get a multimeter. Even the super cheap ones will help to diagnose rudimentary faults such as short circuits.

Also a "short" circuit, I'm referring to, is not the wires which are short, it's a current path which bypasses some components (e.g. motors) and creates a direct path for the current to return. Think of the current taking a "short cut" to avoid going through the loads. This is always bad and causes too much current to flow, and things get hot or even catch fire.

An "open" circuit is the opposite, no current path at all, the components can't get any current through them. An open circuit will still make the robot lose, but at least it won't catch fire.

[TeamPompidou]

Alright cool , I'll have to get a multimeter soon then . I'm going to the event on Saturday I'll take all my robot stuff so someone can have a look and see what they think , then I'll try getting it to work again.