EZ-B microcontroller getting no power

Question

Everyday it seems there is a new problem to solve. Today I tried connecting to my InMoov robot with the latest version of ARC. Whilst it connects OK, I get -1 voltage reading. No servos function of course. This is the first time this has happened. What would be the cause? I can disconnect everything and reconnect one component at a time but that is going to take a long time. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

DJ Sures · Answer

Fuse? Dead battery? Broken wire? Switch? Short? Debugging time lots of things to consider. Use a volt meter to track the power in the cable from the battery. See where the voltage stops

Dave Schulpius · Answer

Hi @Afcorson, I'm a little confused, You say your only getting one volt but it connects? What are you using to connect? Is it an EZB? The working voltage of an EZB is between 4.5 and 16 VDC. I doubt it would boot up and connect at 1vdc. How are you measuring this voltage?  What is actually connecting and to what?  How are you powering your robot? DJ is correct, After you check the easy stuff like fuses and if your power supply is actually supplying power, use a multimeter and work your way towards your device and check where the power stops. The test I'd start with is testing the voltage at the power source and second would be to disconnect the wires feeding your device in question and check there.  If no power at the device then the issue is somewhere in between. Hopefully you have most of your other devices on different fused circuits.

afcorson · Answer

The EZB lights up and I get a successful WiFi connection. But voltage indicator button reads -1. I put a multimeter on the pins and got a 7.4v reading. The camera works but not the servos. I am going to have to pull it out and test with 1 servo at a time and see if I can isolate the problem. This will take a while.

DJ Sures · Answer

Chasing electronic gremlins is troublesome. Just make sure you’re using the latest arc release to rule out any issues there. The latest version at the time of this response is 2021.10.03.00

afcorson · Answer

I replaced the EZB with a new one and replaced the SSC-32 board with a new one. I tested every servo, the SSC-32 connection and Arduino Nano and could find no fault with anything. All functionality of my InMoov robot operates as expected with no changes made to the wiring or connections. I tested the EZB that I removed, and tested every port on it, and only once did I briefly get an error message which was "communications error". I had this message before with that EZB.  So I am hoping that everything stays working on my InMoov, but I think there is some fragility with the setup.  Time will tell.

afcorson · Answer

I tested the EZB that I removed from my InMoov robot, connected it to the old SSC-32 board that I removed. I could not get a servo to work on the SSC-32, despite it appearing to receive signals. I can only conclude that this SSC-32 is faulty since the replacement works well.

DJ Sures · Answer

I think that’s the second ssc-32 we’ve heard that has been faulty. That’s too bad - wonder what is the cause. Hopefully we’re not seeing a bunch of manufacturing defects.  The last user who recently had an issue said there was no voltage on the power pins. Makes me wonder if the traces burned out.

afcorson · Answer

That's interesting. I am tempted to send the faulty SSC-32 back to RobotShop.com where I bought it.

DJ Sures · Answer

It wouldn’t hurt to try. If there is a fault with the manufacturing, they’d want to know. At least to diagnose what happened.

afcorson

EZ-B Microcontroller Getting No Power

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