Possible Voltage Regulation issues

Submitted by ajalexsmith on Fri, 10/26/2018 - 20:13

Forums:

Hi Guys,

I recently purchased 2 Thunderborgs, however i'm having a few issues with them.
Over the past week i've managed to brick 3 Pi's, with the 3rd going out in spectacular fashion!

I'm worried it could be how i'm wiring them up, but i thought the Thunderborg handled the voltage regulation?

The first 2 pi's just never booted up, making me think that i may have shorted them somehow, however the 3rd pi (a pi zero W) I booted it up. It then suddenly lost power. Whilst i was looking at why this was, all of a suddeen smoke started pouring out of the 5v port of the header of the motor controller. Its melted through the cable, and melted part of the female port of the controller.

Do you have any ideas why this is?

I'm using this battery:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-nano-tech-1000mah-3s-40c-lipo-pack-w...

piborg's picture

piborg

Fri, 10/26/2018 - 20:42

It sounds like a short circuit somewhere, probably between the 5V and GND lines.

First I would presume this has caused permanent damage to the boards you have been using. I would not use any of them with anything else as it will likely cause more damage :(

Is it possible that you have connected the 3-pin cables the wrong way around? If so it is possible to attach 5V to any of the 3v3, I2C or GND pins, none of which will tolerate a 5V connection and would probably damage the Pi. This could then form a short circuit through the damaged GPIO, causing the smoke.

ajalexsmith

Fri, 10/26/2018 - 21:35

Thanks for such a quick reply, I'm fairly sure they were in the correct way round, but possibly not as I pulled the cables out pretty quick! The smoke came out of the jumper wire that connected into the female port of the thunderbird, which is confusing me the most!

ajalexsmith

Fri, 10/26/2018 - 21:47

The more I think about itz yesterday during testing the LEDs both turned off. I didn't think much of it, but they were running the voltage elverl code to change colour depending on the level. Do you think this could have been related?

piborg's picture

piborg

Mon, 10/29/2018 - 18:57

It is likely that the LEDs turned off because the 5V line dropped too low before the failure occurred.

You could send the board back to us to investigate the problem further. Just be aware that with severe problems like this it can be difficult to tell what caused the problem from what was damaged by it.

If you do want us to investigate it further the address to send the board back to is:

PiBorg
Unit 15, Earith Business Park
Meadow Drove
Earith
Cambridgeshire
PE28 3QF
United Kingdom

ajalexsmith

Mon, 10/29/2018 - 19:45

Hi! It's all good, I've got another 2 on order to be delivered tomorrow. Thanks for the offer though!

Subscribe to Comments for "Possible Voltage Regulation issues"