Help!!

VEX V5 General Discussion Technical Discussion
1

Whenever I turn on my microcontroller, the battery light blinks. What causes this and what does it mean?
Thanks!

2

I turned it on again and the program wouldn’t run, but the battery light did not blink.

3

My microcontroller also smells like it is burning, I can’t get a program to download even though the settings are right and the microcontroller is on and plugged in, and it feels hot.:(:frowning:

4

I can’t even get the microcontroller to pick up the radio controller’s signal!:(:(:frowning:

5

turn it Off! unplug all batteries! it may be shorting out! did you spill something on it?

6

I did not spill anything on it. It was acting a little funny yesterday, but then I somehow got it to work perfectly. Then, today it just didn’t work.???

7

maybe a solder joint is loose. open it up, and check for a wire that is not connected to anything. (hopefully you can solder)

8

I figured it out!!! Yay!!! I unplugged all of the 14 wires connected to the Analog/Digital ports and it worked!!! Yay!!!:D:D:D I was getting really worried…

9

but did it work when you plugged them back in?

10

so…was it like a shorting sensor or sumthin?

11

We may never know.

12

I think it might have been that when an analog sensor is in the digital port, for some odd reason it shorts. I doubt this is the explanation because it just doesn’t seem likely. Maybe my port number 4 just shorts it… I’ll do more testing.

13

well, if your controller got hot, there is defenitly something wrong. open it up, and check out the ports and the boards.

14

My parents won’t let me open it up and I don’t want to break it.

15

well in that case just don’t use port 4 on analog/digital

that really stinks…1 out of 16 sensor ports gone

16

I’m not sure that’s the problem. Other sensors work on it.

17

The Vex microcontroller is very well designed to be hard to electrically damage. It is pretty much impossible to damage it by attaching any Vex accessories to any port (even where they are not intended to be plugged in). I don’t even think it would hurt the sensors, though I’d avoid plugging any sensors into the motor ports, since they put out a higher voltage than the other ports.

Plugging non-vex bits in can certainly cause problems, particularly externally powered bits. Don’t attach the Vex programming port to your phone, for example, but the design is very robust and can handle a fair amount of abuse.

The total power draw is limited using a “resettable fuse” (or PTC), which should prevent shorts from melting or burning anything. All the signal lines are resistively coupled so that shorts won’t fry the chips inside.

If you did have a short that tripped the PTC, there may be a slight odor if some dust had accumulated inside the controller, but that would be temporary and would go away once the short was removed. This is my best guess, given the symptoms you’ve posted.

Cheers,

  • Dean
18

Wow! I think you got it! I did smell a strange odor. It happened to me again today when I plugged in all the sensors. When I turn it on and it is not working, the battery light blinks three times. does anyone know what this means?

19

hi,…

I’m beginner for making a vex robotics. can you help me to give me a simple program for vex robot with 4 wheel.
and give more detail about another vex design robot and program

thanks

20

Are you using EasyC v2.x or Pro, or MPLAB and MCC18 , or RobotC??

Have you built the Square Bot in the Vex Inventor’s Guide?

Are you wanting a Tank Drive or Arcade Drive control system?

Have you looked in the (Picture) Gallery for design ideas? Have you looked at the Vex Code section for Source Code ideas?

Welcome to Vex, we are glad your here… :wink: