Bitcraze Forums

I'm in need of some help.

Just got my CF the other day. Ran through the build-guide and everything worked out beautifully. Lights were all working, etc. Build was super-easy.

Finally got the CF bound to the radio and started learning to fly.

I landed the CF from about 2 feet off the ground though and all the lights have ceased to light. It seems that the shock from the landing broke something? Had it fallen a long way I could totally understand, but this was landed from only about 2 feet off the ground. I'm an RC-copter pilot so always start flying really cautiously when learning a new platform.

I've connected it to the USB cable (which is new) and no activity there either. She's totally dark.

I've checked the battery connection, motor solder-joints, etc and don't see any visible damage at all.

What should I check next to try and bring this baby back to life?

Do you have a DMM to check and see if the voltage from the battery is really getting to the CF board?

With USB disconnnected, if I test to the +/- on the back of the battery connection, I get 0.3-0.4 mV DC. When I plug the USB in, I get 400mV DC. Yet with the battery connected or disconnected, I experience no LED activity at all. Prior, the LEDs would fire up every time I connected the USB.

Thanks,
-Chris

osifanatic wrote:With USB disconnnected, if I test to the +/- on the back of the battery connection, I get 0.3-0.4 mV DC. When I plug the USB in, I get 400mV DC. Yet with the battery connected or disconnected, I experience no LED activity at all. Prior, the LEDs would fire up every time I connected the USB.

Thanks,
-Chris

Something could be damaged or shorted. Do any of the IC's get hot?
Did you clean the CF after you soldered on the motor wires?
Here's a thread with a similar problem, you should try following some of the trouble shooting tips there.
If you can post some Hi Res pics someone may be able to see an issue.

Atomicdog - thank you for the link to the related thread.

It certainly helped me solve the trouble.

Come to find out it was the stupid USB cable not actually "charging" the CF (even though it showed a change in voltage when connected). When I purchased a micro-USB power-adapter specifically and tried that, the CF powered right up.

Cheers,
-Chris