Cyanide

Hey guys,

Recently I got my DennisK kit working and everything was perfect. However, I powered it up yesterday and the screen popped on but the microtouch controller didn't. So I figured it was a power connection (powering through the serial cable). I noticed that the serial cable was getting very hot, so I thought I was giving it the wrong voltage, but that wasn't it.

Any ideas? I've looked for possible shorts everywhere visible. Think the board is fried? Any way to test if it's the controller or the serial cable? I read the data sheet on the controller, and it said supply power to pins 1-2 on JP2, but which pin is 1? Heh.

Thanks.

MP3Car.com

 

Cyanide

Update:

I tested the cable with a digital multimeter and noticed that the 5 volts was getting through, but the ground wasn't. Turns out that the barrel was too big for the pin. So we fixed that and 5V was coming through fine. I figured that was what was wrong. Plugged it in and the serial cable instantly got hot. Same problem.

Tested the voltage on the solder leads coming out from where the serial cable plugs into the controller board and got a whopping voltage of .28 everytime. That doesn't really make sense to me because I'm getting the 5V on the connector and when I plug it in, the leads that plug into the connector are only giving me .28!

Can anyone shed any light on this? Any possible solutions? Do I have to replace the controller board? Argh.

Thanks guys.

Scott

sxpert

change the cable. if it does not work, change the connector on the controller.
If it still does not work...

Cyanide

So you think it could be the cable?

Cyanide

I talked to the head electronics engineer at SGI up here and he said it sounds like a bad voltage regulator on the controller.

I don't mind buying a new board really, but I CAN'T FIND ONE! Ahhh! Anyone have a spare? It's the uncased serial one that DennisK sold me (and he doesn't have anymore *sigh*).

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