[sdiy] puff of smoke! (MB-808 build)

[Tim Parkhurst]

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 9:08 AM, Aaron Lanterman<lanterma at ece.gatech.edu> wrote:
>
> Yup - first time I power on a circuit first thing I do is see if anything is
> getting unnecessarily warm.
>
> Of course, there's times when your nose tells you this is happening...
>
> - Aaron
>

Before powering up, I always take a meter and make sure there isn't a
short between the power rails and ground (should be greater than 1k
resistance in most cases). Then I hook up the meter to measure the
voltage on the + rail (and a second cheap meter on the - rail). When I
first turn the power on, I make sure the rails come up to where they
should be within a second or so, otherwise I shut it down and recheck
everything. Oh, and I have a cheap a** power supply for prototyping
that will only put out about 100mA, so that limits the amount of
'worst case short' damage. Works for me. :-)

Tim (cheap a**) Servo
-- 
"Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers."
- H.L. Hastings