Problems with kk.2.1.5 board (broken?)

Gabriel

Gabriel

Well-Known Member
(Lol this is my fourth question here in 1 month)

Hey guys, I just finished my first quadcopter build last night, and this morning I plugged everything into the kk.2.1.5 board that I have. I bound my rx and tx and I calibrated the board and everything. I then unplugged it and went to do something else. When I came back to it, I accidentally plugged the battery in backwards (red-black, black-red)! My kk emitted smoke from the battery pin, and there was a spark over by my battery. The battery was drained (tested with multimeter) so I couldn't test to see if the kk still worked. I did, however, plug the kk into my computer with my avr programmer and the lcd lit up and the board powered on as normal.

I will charge my battery again tonight and see if it works, but I'm wondering if my board is broken? Are the power pins fried and nothing else? Or did I just get lucky and nothing broke ;) ?



P.S. Also, kind of a side note, but after my motors spin for a while, they are difficult to spin with my hand. I think this is ok, but could someone tell me if it isn't?

Thanks!
 
Gabriel said:
(Lol this is my fourth question here in 1 month)

Hey guys, I just finished my first quadcopter build last night, and this morning I plugged everything into the kk.2.1.5 board that I have. I bound my rx and tx and I calibrated the board and everything. I then unplugged it and went to do something else. When I came back to it, I accidentally plugged the battery in backwards (red-black, black-red)! My kk emitted smoke from the battery pin, and there was a spark over by my battery. The battery was drained (tested with multimeter) so I couldn't test to see if the kk still worked. I did, however, plug the kk into my computer with my avr programmer and the lcd lit up and the board powered on as normal.

I will charge my battery again tonight and see if it works, but I'm wondering if my board is broken? Are the power pins fried and nothing else? Or did I just get lucky and nothing broke ;) ?



P.S. Also, kind of a side note, but after my motors spin for a while, they are difficult to spin with my hand. I think this is ok, but could someone tell me if it isn't?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


The motors become difficult to spin because of FET drag, basically the coil has a little bit of power runing through it when you spin it is little it creates a tiny amount of back voltage on the gate. Anything look burnt on the KK? It is supposed to have polarity protection.
 
The motors become difficult to spin because of FET drag, basically the coil has a little bit of power runing through it when you spin it is little it creates a tiny amount of back voltage on the gate. Anything look burnt on the KK? It is supposed to have polarity protection.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I plugged in my other battery (other one won't charge now...), and I discovered that my power distribution board that is included in my flamewheel f450 frame is broken. The power won't go to the escs. If I plug the battery into the esc and then power the kk from the esc, the backlight turns on but there's no words on it. If I plug in the usbasp though, the words appear........

I have no idea what's going on... do I need a new kk and a new distribution board??
 
Gabriel said:
Ok, so I plugged in my other battery (other one won't charge now...), and I discovered that my power distribution board that is included in my flamewheel f450 frame is broken. The power won't go to the escs. If I plug the battery into the esc and then power the kk from the esc, the backlight turns on but there's no words on it. If I plug in the usbasp though, the words appear........

I have no idea what's going on... do I need a new kk and a new distribution board??
Click to expand...

How is your KK2.1.5 board getting power? Are you using a UBEC to step the voltage down to 5?
 
How is your KK2.1.5 board getting power? Are you using a UBEC to step the voltage down to 5?
Click to expand...

I'm powering it throught the escs. They have built in BECs. Everything was working fine until I plugged the battery in wrong.... ;(
 
Gabriel said:
I'm powering it throught the escs. They have built in BECs. Everything was working fine until I plugged the battery in wrong.... ;(
Click to expand...
Ohh, you plugged the battery in backwards to an ESC? I did that with a 5200mAh battery and found that the ESCs have a diode that bridges the + and - in case you have the polarity wrong. The diode saved the ESCs and filled my living room with smoke from the battery's cables. If this is the case you may have ruined your battery, and need to take it apart to look replace the battery wires as the heat causes them to get brittle over a short period of time. Once they get brittle they can start to break and catch fire in the air, if you shorted it and don't feel comfortable changing battery leads you probably need to throw it away *if this is what happened*
 
Ohh, you plugged the battery in backwards to an ESC? I did that with a 5200mAh battery and found that the ESCs have a diode that bridges the + and - in case you have the polarity wrong. The diode saved the ESCs and filled my living room with smoke from the battery's cables. If this is the case you may have ruined your battery, and need to take it apart to look replace the battery wires as the heat causes them to get brittle over a short period of time. Once they get brittle they can start to break and catch fire in the air, if you shorted it and don't feel comfortable changing battery leads you probably need to throw it away *if this is what happened*
Click to expand...

I didn't have the battery plugged into the esc. I had it plugged into the flamewheel f450's built in power distribution board. After I plugged the battery in wrong, the distribution board stopped working.Last night, I attempted to solder the esc wires together to create a makeshift distribution board. After soldering the battery to the first esc, everything started working again. Maybe there's a fuse in that segment of the distribution board that blew to save my escs? But now the kk is working again and I have power to everything!

So I fixed that issue, and got everything ready for a maiden flight. It was able to take off, but it began drifting diagonally (towards one motor). I tried to correct it, but it then flipped and crashed. On a second attempt, it took off, but then it started jiggling in the air and flipped itself over.....

Any idea what could be causing that?

Thanks
 
Gabriel said:
I didn't have the battery plugged into the esc. I had it plugged into the flamewheel f450's built in power distribution board. After I plugged the battery in wrong, the distribution board stopped working.Last night, I attempted to solder the esc wires together to create a makeshift distribution board. After soldering the battery to the first esc, everything started working again. Maybe there's a fuse in that segment of the distribution board that blew to save my escs? But now the kk is working again and I have power to everything!

So I fixed that issue, and got everything ready for a maiden flight. It was able to take off, but it began drifting diagonally (towards one motor). I tried to correct it, but it then flipped and crashed. On a second attempt, it took off, but then it started jiggling in the air and flipped itself over.....

Any idea what could be causing that?

Thanks
Click to expand...
As far as I know most PDBs are just PCB, so it should not matter if it was backwards, unless there is something running off it.
 
As far as I know most PDBs are just PCB, so it should not matter if it was backwards, unless there is something running off it.
Click to expand...

Ok. I guess I may never know why the distribution board broke, but at least it's working now!

Any thoughts on the new problem?

It was able to take off, but it began drifting diagonally (towards one motor). I tried to correct it, but it then flipped and crashed. On a second attempt, it took off, but then it started jiggling in the air and flipped itself over.....
Click to expand...
 
Go and check your sensors.
Click to expand...

I have made sure they're all working and have calibrated my accelerometers. Is there anyway to calibrate my gyros? (I have Steveis firmware)

Maybe the gyros are the problem...?
 
Gabriel said:
I have made sure they're all working and have calibrated my accelerometers. Is there anyway to calibrate my gyros? (I have Steveis firmware)

Maybe the gyros are the problem...?
Click to expand...
Perhaps, re-flash, then is it possible for you to get a video of it? Also take a look at the vibration test, imbalance can cause this. Have you ever had it flying before the short, if not you need to tune your PIDs.
 
Perhaps, re-flash, then is it possible for you to get a video of it? Also take a look at the vibration test, imbalance can cause this. Have you ever had it flying before the short, if not you need to tune your PIDs.
Click to expand...

What are PIDs? I've heard about them but I'm not sure what they are....
 
Well on a KK board there is no derivative (is is somewhat redundant if you have the proportional and integral set right)
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Ok, so I edited the PIDs and then I took it outside to test, and the escs won't light up or beep! I tested it with a multimeter, and there's power to all of them, but they won't power up..... Also, when I was testing the voltage going through the distribution board, I accidently connected the multimeter pins and the flight controller stopped displaying writing again. I passed it off as a dead battery, although all 3 cells in my battery have about 4.5v each. I tried to charge the battery with my (http://www.horizonhobby.com/product...-3s-lipo-balancing-dc-charger--05-3a-eflc3010) lipo charger, and when I plugged it in, the green and red light started flashing, which usually means an error, except it didn't beep and the green light stayed on for about 1 second then the red light flashed for about 1/10th of a second (So they weren't flashing steadily). Then after about 10 seconds, they started alternating normally again and the charger began beeping, signaling an error. It's strange because this is what happens when I try to charge the battery that I depleted by reversing the polarity in the first place.....

So... is(are) my battery(ies) broken?

What's up with the screen on my kk?

Update: sometimes, when I connect my battery to the copter, the kk boots up, then the words disappear. When this happens, the escs also power up and emit a quiet arming noise, but turn off when the words disappear. Also, I remembered that the flashing (not alternating) lights mean cell balancing. Is it possible that hooking the batteries up to my quad is somehow causing errors during cell balancing?
 
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Gabriel said:
Ok, so I edited the PIDs and then I took it outside to test, and the escs won't light up or beep! I tested it with a multimeter, and there's power to all of them, but they won't power up..... Also, when I was testing the voltage going through the distribution board, I accidently connected the multimeter pins and the flight controller stopped displaying writing again. I passed it off as a dead battery, although all 3 cells in my battery have about 4.5v each. I tried to charge the battery with my (http://www.horizonhobby.com/product...-3s-lipo-balancing-dc-charger--05-3a-eflc3010) lipo charger, and when I plugged it in, the green and red light started flashing, which usually means an error, except it didn't beep and the green light stayed on for about 1 second then the red light flashed for about 1/10th of a second (So they weren't flashing steadily). Then after about 10 seconds, they started alternating normally again and the charger began beeping, signaling an error. It's strange because this is what happens when I try to charge the battery that I depleted by reversing the polarity in the first place.....

So... is(are) my battery(ies) broken?

What's up with the screen on my kk?

Update: sometimes, when I connect my battery to the copter, the kk boots up, then the words disappear. When this happens, the escs also power up and emit a quiet arming noise, but turn off when the words disappear. Also, I remembered that the flashing (not alternating) lights mean cell balancing. Is it possible that hooking the batteries up to my quad is somehow causing errors during cell balancing?
Click to expand...
Check the voltage of the BEC's output. The battery could be sagging under even the slightest load. Also could have damaged a few things if the ESCs are not polarity protected in any way.
 
Check the voltage of the BEC's output. The battery could be sagging under even the slightest load. Also could have damaged a few things if the ESCs are not polarity protected in any way.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I went to the hobby store and they said that I'd over-discharged my battery. They brought it back up to voltage with their 'smart' charger and told me not to do that again ;). I adjusted the PID's again (set them all to 30) and I had success!!!! I'm able to fly it now!

Thanks!
 
Gabriel said:
Ok, so I went to the hobby store and they said that I'd over-discharged my battery. They brought it back up to voltage with their 'smart' charger and told me not to do that again ;). I adjusted the PID's again (set them all to 30) and I had success!!!! I'm able to fly it now!

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hahaha, sounds good. Also after over discharging your battery the cells may not hold a balance, so be sure to check it regularly for a few cycles and balance it when charging.
 
Hahaha, sounds good. Also after over discharging your battery the cells may not hold a balance, so be sure to check it regularly for a few cycles and balance it when charging.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I took it out today and it flew for about 1-2 minutes before the props stopped spinning and it plummeted to the ground. I checked the battery voltage and it was at 9.9v (max is about 11.4v). The guy at the hobby store told me not to drain it past 10v, but I thought that it would fly for longer before it depleted that much, as my RC plane which the battery came with, flies for about 10-15 minutes on a single charge. So, I tried to charge it and it wouldn't charge again.........

Any idea why it won't last more than about 2 minutes?

Is there a charger that you recommend that can bring it back up to voltage from <10v?
 
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