suzyclayson
Resolved by Dave Schulpius!
stress I connected an h bridge to my ezb and was messing around with what ports to use when my ezb started to smoke and the lights turned off when I plug it in more smoke appears. i know the fuse isn't blown because the hbridge still lights up and it gets its power from the ezb. I had the 4 white wires connected to D0, D1, D2, D3,and the red white and black wire connected to A7 when it smoked. it seemed to be working fine until then. I haven't taken it apart yet to fully asses the damage so i don't void the warranty. I'm wondering if i could fix it by replacing a component or get a refund. I was following an official ez-robot hbridge tutorial so does the warranty still stand? If not does anyone Know if it might be fixable? Judging by the smell id say the fried component is under the camera port.
stress
If you were following the tutorial you wouldn't have had a problem.
Here is the lesson for connecting the H-Bridge to Roli. The video you posted is for the V3 EZ-B
Which pins on the digital ports did you connect the 4 white wires to? You mentioned port A7 above, is that correct or was it a typo? You should not have been anywhere near the analogue ports hence why I am asking.
As far as warranty is concerned I don't know the answer however if it was due to misuse then it may not be covered. EZ-Robot's will have to comment on that one.
When you said
That might indicate a mistake in your wiring. Probably the reason for the smoke....Sadly I'm sure you connected to the wrong point on the EZB. Without seeing your actual wiring job it's impossible to see what you actually did. My guess is you attached a ground to a voltage point or visa versa and shorted out your EZB. All components on the EZB V4 are surface mount and very hard for the average hobbyist to replace.
My opinion is that if you miswired and shorted the EZB then EZ Robot should not be on the hook for your mistake. Thus voiding any warranty. Time to buy a new EZB or ask if EZ Robot can repair for a cost.
If it's any consolation, you're not alone. Many people with much more experience then you have released the magic smoke while working with electronics. I'm guilty of torching many components in either ignorance or hurry. These including sending a variable potentiometer up in actual 2" flames and destroying the main chip on an old V3 EZB. eek I learned the hard way to always double and triple check my new wiring connections and never attach load (your motor) before power up for the first time. Instead buy and learn how to use a digital multimeter and check that your getting the proper voltages where you expect. Then using a continuity test make sure you have nothing expecting positive or negative voltage ringing out to ground.
Keep your head up and dont give up. Get another EZB or try to have EZ Robot fix this one (if they are willing and able) and keep pushing forward.
Is there any visible damage? You can take the ez-b out of the shell and see if you see burn marks.
Techno, what's your point? confused
The fuse could have gone. A replaceable component may be the cause of smoke. The Wifi module is there, so maybe it went.
There's major stuff under there, so we would see if its something under there that went.
Techno, Thanks for expanding on your advice.
However:
According to the first comments, power is still flowing through the EZB because the H Bridge is still getting power. This means the fuse is still good. Anyway when a fuse blows there is usually no smoke from the fuse unless it explodes. And never smoke the second time power is applied. Trust me, I know from experience. eek
There are no replaceable components the average hobbyist can replace. As I said above everything is surface mounted electronics. I've done a ton of board repair but never surface mount repair. It's a little intimidating because it so small and compact but some day I intend to try. I have a roomba that needs a resistor replaces so I'll probably start there.
If the Wifi module went then maybe they could get a replacement for that. It would be good to see if EZ Robot has replacements for just half the sandwiched boards.
It would also be interesting but not really productive to see what is burnt up. However in my opinion this wouldnt help get it fixed unless EZ Robot would want to know. It would just tell us all what happened and help this person so they could be careful and not do it again.
Thanks for the advice ill save up for a new ezb and maybe steer clear of h bridges for a while. p.s this is the robot i was working on his name is b.o.b or biomechanicaliy, overbearing, buddy. and this is how i had the ezb connected to the h-bridge.
Yep, you have the H-bridge hooked up to the ADC ports on the right side of the EZB. You don't use these ports to control an H-bridge. Their used to monitor changes in voltage that are supplied from the same port. One pin sends out the voltage, one monitors the what comes back and the 3rd is ground. I can't see how you've for the H-Bridge wired in this pic but you either plugged a voltage pin into a ground or visa versa. You probably have the white wire running to a ground. Have you unplugged everything and tried to power up again?