Broken V5 Ports... and How to Fix Them!

[technik3k]

That’s an excellent write up @V5Wizard!

@majorjoel2

All these components are pretty cheap and will cost about 60 cents per port or $13 per V5.

I think VEX could get those components much cheaper:

@technik3k

Bi-directional SMBJ43CA and SMBJ43CD devices could be bought for as little as $0.11 in large quantities or for $0.44 for non-volume orders. This would be similar to the cost of SM712 ($0.87) to protect 2 channels on one RS-485 port.

https://www.digikey.com/products/en/circuit-protection/tvs-diodes/144?FV=1b14006b%2Cffe00090&quantity=0&ColumnSort=1000011&page=1&stock=1&k=SMBJ43&pageSize=100&pkeyword=SMBJ43

Last year I found a deal on EBay and bought 50 SMBJ43CA TVS diodes for about $6 including shipping, which is ~ $0.25 to protect one V5 port.