feganmeister
Hello EZ-Robotiers!
So my kit arrived today and I thought it is now the best time to say a quick greeting, pass on my initial observations and ask about an extremely minor issue.
Me: So I'm an IT professional by trade with a long established love of technology and somewhat passionate about understanding the world around me. I'm a complete robot amateur but plenty of experience with programming. I'm likely to need help with components and electronics while likely to help with coding and generalised issues.
EZ-Kit: So, like I said I just got my EZ-Robot kit and it's fair to say the excitement and creative juices are rife! Everything about this product is excellent; the price, features, presentation, contents, delivery time... everything! Just a small note on the power cables for fellow UK residents though, you will need a travel adaptor to accompany your kit.
Small Problem: I ordered the bench power supply but when I plugged it in (via the travel adaptor with the supplied kettle lead) the LED on the pack didn't light up and no power to the EZB
I whipped out the batteries and connected to battery pack and the board is fine (phew!) so thinking that either the power cord or pack is faulty, I connected a standard UK kettle cable but the pack still doesn't come to life. Any suggestions what I can try next? I thought I'd ask here before cracking it open and prodding around. We're 230V mains voltage here in the UK if that makes any difference.
tl;dr I love my new EZ-Robot kit
Best of luck getting everything up and running.
Matt
@robot-doc the kettle lead (from the plug socket to the pack) seems ok, the meter shows voltage but I'm not getting a reading from the bit that connects to the EZB from the pack (barrel connector?). Any other ideas? Cheers *blush*
About the only thing that you could replace yourself would be the barrel connector which may not have been made properly. A switched mode PSU like this cant really be fixed a trip to Maplins will get you something to replace it fairly cheaply or just a replacement barrel to solder on if thats the problem. Normally the EZ-B guys are pretty good at sending replacements for DOA parts check your junk inbox
I've checked my Junk but I wouldn't have expected a message as the Contact form wouldn't allow me to send, predefined notice when you go to the Contact page... That said, I appreciate the cost of shipping a replacement would hit the EZ-pockets, I'd rather they get a refund from the supplier and use the cash to keep up the great work
Am I understanding this right that if I had any 12v DC pack that supplied 5A (and a barrel that fit) it would be ok to use as a replacement? I've got an old 'universal' laptop pack that might well do the trick if I snip the existing barrel as you suggested.
Thanks for the help and advise, I'll try to grab a photo this weekend.
Almost anything from 7v to 12v DC and say 3 to 5 amps would do as long as the polarity is correct and the barrel is the right size. Check the barrel is the same size (if you can?) as the battery pack one
center pin is postive and outside barrel is ground,second did you check the voltake at the barrel without plugging into the EZB ,might be a short
second you might have the voltage backward witch would short out and give you zero volts
second is there a current limter control on your bench supply ,mostly only need less then 500 ma for to power the board
i am electronic engineer so can help you slove the problem,have a make and model of the bench supply
you may have a current problem without the specs and if it runs on 120 volts instead of 220 volts
there is a simple design to make it work on 220 volts and there should be a plate for voltage and sometimes a switch to switch between 120 volts and 220 volts ,called voltage selector switch
first i would disconnect from ezb and use a current meter on the barrel
i would recheck the EZB with battery connector,since you did say it work and now it might be shorted out,the fuse should take care of it,depending where the fuse is the circuit,so check the fuse,if bad your connections are reverse that would bring it to zero with it plug in,the barrel connector also could be bad,it may have a bad solder joint ,but if using the one on the battery pack, it is fine