Huntorial: How to kill an Arduino board

[Elkman]

Here's a helpful lesson when working with sensitive electronics: The little terminal on a 9 volt battery goes into the big socket on the battery connector, and the big socket on the 9 volt battery goes into the little terminal on the battery connector. It seems obvious, but let's see what happens when you try to do something stupid like this:

If you try to touch the small terminal to the small terminal and the big socket to the big socket, it won't connect permanently, but it will deliver a reversed voltage long enough to kill the voltage regulator on an Arduino board.

The actual result should have looked like this, but with the Arduino board and 9 volt battery cleverly hidden in the spear, instead of a USB cable connected to the board:

I don't know too many Predators who run around with a spear wired to a laptop computer via USB.

 

[MasterAnubis]

Bummer.

Just make some sort of 9v to USB power adapter.

I'd guess you found which board you'll be testing with though, right?


On a side note. Have you tried using any other variation of the board?
I see you have the Pro, I haven't played with. My timer gauntlet I ended up with a Boarduino. Nice and small but no USB and not all of the outputs.

 

[Elkman]

Bummer.

Just make some sort of 9v to USB power adapter.

I'd guess you found which board you'll be testing with though, right?


On a side note. Have you tried using any other variation of the board?
I see you have the Pro, I haven't played with. My timer gauntlet I ended up with a Boarduino. Nice and small but no USB and not all of the outputs.

My first countdown gauntlet, and several that I built afterward, were based on the now-discontinued Arduino Duemilanove. It's been replaced by the Arduino Uno. The Duemilanove and the Uno are good boards for a beginner, since they have the power supply and USB connector onboard. I moved on to the Arduino Pro for later builds, since it was easier to solder wires directly into the board and since I didn't need the USB or power connectors after programming the board. I'm now going to try the Arduino Pro Mini for the countdown timer in this spear, since it'll fit in better. The Pro and Pro Mini can both connect to the FTDI Basic Breakout board so you can connect a USB cable to program them.

 

[MasterAnubis]

They discontinued the Duemilanove. I haven't looked it up in while.

I'm going to have to check that out more.

The Boaduino uses the FTDI too. But obviously I'm gonna want to play with one of the Minis.

 

[Ei luj]

Elkman,

sorry to hear of the mishap

what I did for my countdowns was put a 1N4001 diode on the PC board, in series with the + of the battery, right after where the battery snap wire comes into the board.

The "-" or side with the band on it connects to the trace that goes to the fuze & rest of the input circuit (on/off switch, input filter cap, input of regulator).

That way if somebody connects the battery backward, the diode prevents current from going the wrong way & frying parts.

---
Ei'luj

 

[xdmray]

i was getting ready to ask if your boards might do this julie, thanks for the heads up.

sorry to hear that elkman