A little while back, I purchased a pixracer from auav after I decided that it would be the best autopilot for my budget. I didn’t have enough money to buy all the parts together, so I was getting them one by one whenever I had a little extra money. The pixracer was the first thing I got and I had it laying around until I could start building. Finally, last week I had all the parts I needed.Before that, I discovered about two weeks ago that I needed a power module, so I ordered one from auav. I started with the power system. I soldered the acsp5 according to this [video] from
RagTheNutsOff on youtube. No mention of soldering the capacitor that came with the module.
I had no idea why they included an electrolytic capacitor. I assumed it was there by mistake or some kind of gesture from them. Anyway, I appreciated it in the back of my mind. After setting it up, I decided to test it.
I connected the battery only to hear a “pop” sound and the pixracer not powering up. I had powered the flight controller via usb before that to flash it,
so I knew it was supposed to work. I plugged it to my computer and all I saw was a solid green light and no sound from the buzzer. The flight controller MCU was dead according to a post from a person who is affiliated with AUAV. After a bit of research, I discovered that the capacitor was there for a reason. Apparently, they had discovered after the module was already in production that using it with a 6S or above battery could cause voltage spikes that could damage the on board regulator. In other words, it was already too late. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-J0n35POhg) Now, two things:
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It is so frustrating to think that auav knowing about the problem decided only to post it in a forum. The least they could have done in addition to that is to include a note as to why the capacitor is included and the ramifications of not using it. Now I have a dead power module and flight controller which is about $130 down the drain.
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According to another forum post, the MCU on the pixracer cannot take anything above 5.5V. How hard is to incorporate over voltage protection on the flight controller? Perhaps having a regulator on board the fc and increasing the input voltage range. This is not a problem you find in consumer electronics. Every possible issue is accounted for. I don’t mean to complain, but I would think as an engineering student that these are issues that you plug along the way in the design process.
I am very frustrated at this point. Considering that I bought this flight controller because of budget limitations as a college student, I would have been better off just saving a little more and going with something like a navio2 which I would have gone for had it not been for the excellent recommendations I got about auav. I also hear that auav is notorious for not responding to customer complaints and I can confirm that. I am never buying anything from them again unless something changes. It is not okay to spend money that I almost don’t have for the sake of learning a enjoying the hobby and be left stranded. AUAV, YOU GOTTA DO BETTER!!!
Anyway, I thought I would let out the frustration before I cooled down.