Asked
— Edited
Resolved by CochranRobotics!
I am trying to use the ez-B v4 to make a wall-E robot. I am confused where the power goes. Does the Li-po power the servos or the Controller. If it powers the controller then how exactly to use it because when I tried cutting the two big red n black wires on the li-po there was a spark and the battery puffed up which is why I had to throw away the battery.
First cutting the wires at the same time will cause the battery to short out (make contact with + and - sides of the battery. You have to cut one at a time to avoid this.
If you bought the dev kit, there is a barrel adapter that can be connected to the battery. The + side of the adapter connects to the red wire and the - side to the black wire on the battery.
From there you can power the ez-b. The power for the servos will come from the ez-b which will then be connected to the battery.
@sgavit11 Man you programmers don't know much about electricity LOL :P.... When you cut the battery cables you're only supposed to cut one wire at a time and then insulate them (keep them from touching)... Lipos generate a lot of current. You're lucky it didn't catch fire... Think about it, you wouldn't open your car hood an lay a wrench or screwdriver across the positive and negative terminals of your car's battery, right? When you cut both wires at once you shorted your battery which destroyed it.... Be careful....
Yeah I realized that is what happened so I just wanted to confirm it. I just wasn't sure which set of wires to connect to the ez-b. But now I feel stupid for asking this on the forum. Thanks.
No reason to feel stupid. We all make mistakes even when we have done this for a while. The best advice I can think of is this...
We are all excited when we get something as cool as a robot platform. That is why we do what we do. Everything that you do, pause and think about it before you do it. Always take the long road when working with robotics. It takes longer but always produces better results. It is like programming in that the eloquent solution always produces better results than the expedient one.
Nobody here meant to make you feel stupid. We all started somewhere with this passion. We all have made mistakes. We all still make mistakes. Hopefully the ones we make are not too costly.
Let us know if there is anything you need help with. It is best to ask first to verify than to have a costly mistake.
Don't feel stupid man....we're just happy you still have your fingers :).... Anyway, lesson learned.... One more thing... if you are just using the ezb4 (without the base so it will fit in Wall-e) make sure you throw a 20amp fuse off the + positive battery lead... This will protect your wiring and electronics in case of a short.... :)