Driver Error

General discussion of using Roboclaw motor controllers
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Basicmicro Support
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Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:45 pm
Re: Driver Error

Post by Basicmicro Support »

I already replied to your CRM but I want to post this for others.

A driver error is almost always permenet(eg a damaged part on the board). We will repair the board at no charge. You just have to send it in to us.

There is one exception to driver failures being permenent. If the Logic power is hooked up and the LB/MB jumper is disconnected and there is no Main Battery connected then there is no power to the driver chips so they will look like a driver failure to the main processor.

The usual cause of driver failures are over voltages. The drivers are rated to 50V. However in some situations you can cause voltage spikes well over 50v weven if you are only inputing 12v. This is usually only a problem when using a power supply because most power supplies can not deal with the regenerative voltage. Instead the voltage will just shoot up.

A second cause is excessively long battery wires. This can cause the same kind of voltage spikes power supplies cause. The inductance because so large that current cant change quickly enough that instead you get a voltage spike. basic rule: Keep your power wires short and fat. The bigger the wire gauage(larger diameter) the lower the inductance. So if you have to run long power leads use large gauge wire to help compensate for the increased inductance due to length.

A third possible cause is Static discharge. This is much less likely(based on our own data) but still a possibility. If you are in a very dry environment you may be generating a lot of static electricty. if you touch the boards electronics(bare traces or leads) you can shoot several thousand volts in to the board. Based on RMA numbers we may have seen one or two units that were damaged this way since we started business so its not very likely.

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