# LED question.



## OMT (May 10, 2010)

on the paul and sabrina control board. i have everything but traction voltage, and the pot box connected and ony the green led will light up solid, the yellow doesnt light up atall. anyone know the light troubleshooting


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## mora (Nov 11, 2009)

Sorry, no help on led behaviour from me, but I'd suggest connecting the controller to a computer using serial cable. If your computer doesn't have serial interface you can use cheap usb-serial-adapters. Then download RTD explorer from www.evvette.com. RTD explorer will show you possible error codes and lets you configure other parameters. You'll likely need to adjust your throttle range and precharge timer anyway. There will also be visual aid on various signals like pwm, raw throttle and current. If everything looks ok you could test your controller at 12V using smaller dc motor, like a fan motor, before connecting it to your traction pack and actual traction motor.


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

OMT said:


> on the paul and sabrina control board. i have everything but traction voltage, and the pot box connected and ony the green led will light up solid, the yellow doesnt light up atall. anyone know the light troubleshooting


 A flashing yellow led would indicate a fault of some kind. The yellow led not on at all could be a bad led or put in backwards or a solder not right or something else along those lines.

Alvin


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

hmm tested the led it lit up, i re soldered it in and tested..no luck, it seems like there is no voltage going to d5 ( i tested the terminals at the board, and the greeen led was about 2-3v


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

OMT said:


> hmm tested the led it lit up, i re soldered it in and tested..no luck, it seems like there is no voltage going to d5 ( i tested the terminals at the board, and the greeen led was about 2-3v


Is the LEM plugged in to the board?


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

yes, the lem( blue current sensor?) is plugged in, temp sensor rt1, just the potentiometer isnt connected. voltage on U1 relative tot he back of U1 is 11.8v, 0v, 4.98v 4.98 is the pin furthest away from the cincon, or cosest to the edge. any suggestions on where to track this issue down next?

thanks in advance!


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

also just a quick question i cant seem to find any silver epoxy paste locally, is there any other conductive paste i can use, or do i have to order some.


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

The green light comes on just because power is applied to board.

Hook up the potentiometer.

D5 is supplied from U3 pin 12 thru R22.

Is the microcontroller programmed?


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

yea its programmed, im trying to hook it up to my laptop but usb-serial wont work on windows7 so i gotta use a desktop :/ ill be soo happy when i finally get to drive my ol ev around again


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

If you don't have a pot hooked to it ,that is like having a broken wire.

My usb-serial works on windows 7. Had to download driver from the cables web site.


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

yeah i checked mine oly goes up to windows xp, i tryed downloading xp mode from microsoft but it couldnt read it. im going to try and see if the computer sees a problem if not ill try it with 12 volts and a motor. 

by the way were is a good place to get a little silver epoxy for a decent price


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

The silver conductive epoxy comes with the kit.

When I bought my usb-serial cable it came with the driver disc , but it was packaged before windows 7 . So I went to their site not Microsoft . Then downloaded the proper driver.

You may have to try different ports on the laptop before you find the right one.

Amazon has silver epoxy.

Good Luck


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

i know, i used it when i first built the controller, now im just replacing the control board, the serial usb i bought last year only goes to xp, i called the store they have a newer one i think ill just go buy


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

still no light even with the pot connected and everything but traction voltage ughh. im going to get an xp computer from a friend so that i can try and troubleshoot through rtd explorer.


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

You could recheck between U3 Pin12 and R22 then R22 to D5.
Recheck the polarity of D5.

You could check for voltage at gate resistors to see if it is working.

Did it ever work?


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

turns out r22 may have been defected/dmaged, once replaced i got a flashing d5 as i should (only had 12v+/- connected) now all i need is to solder gr1-10 and get some silver epoxy!!

thanks everyone for helping again! much appreciated!


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

it looks like my next speedbump in this repair will be making contact with the burnt copper circle surrounding the mosfet that blew. the middle pin, when it dissintegrated, also evapourated a perfect circle in the boards copper where the solder ring makes contact. i wonder if i can try and melt some solder to carefully connect it. any suggestions?


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

so simply, this is what im looking at. the brown parts are the copper on the power board. the arrow points to the empty ring around the solder hole( the plastic is still intact but the thin copper sheet around it burnt). im debating what i should do in this case, oversolder to make sure it has a good contact?


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi OMT

Are you just replacing a couple of MOSFETs?

The reason I ask is that I blew a MOSFET - I replaced the blown one and its neighbor which looked damaged
But a short time later - 30km - I had a bigger blowup

I decided (in my ignorance) that I had damaged some of the others - or that the two new ones were sufficiently different
and that had contributed to the later blowup

I then replaced all of the MOSFETs and the diodes
(I also replaced the power board as it was well zapped)

So far working OK (cross fingers)


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## OMT (May 10, 2010)

wow! i hope that doesnt happen :S oh god im going to have nightmares of that now :O. but no im not sure why, but only one mosfet blew. you can clearly see the others seem untouched by evils, so i just replaced the one. right now all i have to do until i can test is somehow solder the contact i was explaining above^, and wait a week or so for the silver epoxy to arrive i ordered this one because it was the cheapest one i found at 26$ shipped. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/silver-fill...657?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2580c5b969

the sad thing is i procrastinated earlier in the year, and now i might have to leave my car at home while i study out in windsor, and on my reading weeks see if i can finish her up and sell her to help pay for tuition  :'(


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## PStechPaul (May 1, 2012)

That's a good price for the silver epoxy. You may also consider other methods for PCB repair. Here is one for about $20:
http://www.vetco.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=945

Here are high end repair kits costing several hundred dollars:
http://www.ipcoutlook.org/mart/49318.shtml
http://www.solder.net/products/pcb-repair-products

Eyelets are also helpful when plated thru holes are damaged:
http://www.engineeringlab.com/eyelets.html


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