Recently, my team wanted to move away from encoders and utilize the gyro for more accurate turns. I was on the fence for allowing them, since last year, another one of our team’s sister teams burned out a gyro, and was having difficulties with a second one they borrowed. However, wanting them to learn, I found a brand new gyro in our closet, and when they plugged it into the port, the gyro started smoking. The port itself isn’t bad; the team tested the gyro with the same port they use a potentiometer with. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, does anyone know how to fix the issue?
I did not experience gyro overheating, but it is very easy to plug it in wrong way. I always double check that black wire is plugged into gyro ground and that the other end of the wire is inserted all the way into the 3-wire port. And to be very safe try to measure voltage between red and black wires before connecting them to gyro.