5v and 1000ma / 2ma USB charger correct ? (they fried my board)

#1

Hello,

At an installation site they fried my board plugging the microusb port to a regular 5v 2000ma usb charger. The audio output was static and it smelled funny. Board non operative.

I am about to send my only other replacement board, and now I am afraid it may happen again, so I would like to double check the correct usb charger power I have to supply to Axoloti.

So, if the charger says 5v 1000ma OR 5v 2000ma , is that safe to plug ?

I assume it is, and that they screwed it somewhere else, but wanted to check before frying another one !

Thank you very much

#2

Every charger that delivers 5v and at least 500mA should work. It is always recommended to use good quality charger as some cheap ones might be unstable and potentialy dangerous for your gear. So I suppose your problem may come from an issue with the charger, or an instability in your main power supply.
If you have added some components (display, sensors, midi controller on the usb host port, etc.) these may need some more power but I never had any problems.

#3

Thank you for the answer.

There is nothing connected to the board at all.

They must have done something really wrong, as the board seemed to smell after static noise. More than 5v 2a on that cable for sure.

When I get the board or an image, if there is any visible damage, I'll try to post here to see if anybody can help troubleshoot what may have happened.

Thank you

#4

I have powered many different axoloties via micro-usb connected to many different usb-phone chargers and also powerbanks, i never had an issue. Did they place the axoloti on a metal surface or was there any liquid involved? Also try (or make them) measure the voltage they get out of the USB charger

#5

This. Since the Axoloti is an exposed circuit board, it needs to rest on a non-conductive (and dry) surface. Before you send your second board, I recommend making sure it's in some type of enclosure when it's in use.

If you or anybody you know has a 3d printer, there are a handful of Axoloti enclosures that you can get for free on Yeggi.

Also chiming in to say that I've never had problems with USB or a 5v power source. Not to mention that to this point my Axoloti has been incredibly resilient to things like putting it on my all-metal laptop when in use, as well as having other metal lay across pins. Echoing others to say you should definitely take a look at the power supply being used.

If it's one of those things where the wrong charger was used on accident, an error like reverse polarity could be a big issue.

#6

Thank you all.

Reading all your messages some possibility comes to mind.

This is an installation at a site where I am not physically present (as it is common nowadays :)). The people in charge of the installation tied together the usb cable that goes into a usb charger, and the audio cable that goes to speakers. Both on the ceiling. Like this (third usb cable goes to computer during flashing):


image.jpg590x610 34.8 KB

I assume mere proximity of the cables shouldn't provoke this, but, If for any reason there were some bridge between both cables, that could very well fry the board couldn't it ?

Hopefully they manage to find the culprit.

Thans again