Possibly fried raspberry pi / navigator?

Blue Robotics Products Flight Controllers
1

Hello. About 2 weeks ago we received and set up our BlueRov2 with Heavy Config Kit.

Today, we started the installation of some custom sensors. To communicate with our sensor, we are using serial communication. We used a USB to RS232 (TX/RX) adapter (where the USB is plugged into the pi). While debugging some connectivity issues in the adapter/cables, the raspberry pi / navigator suddenly stopped working. On startup, the thrusters are powered on, but there is no beep for the flight controller and the pi is not lighting up. Naturally, we cannot connect to blueos.local or QGC

There is power coming into the system from the battery and into the power blocks, but there seems to be no power coming out of the 5/6V BEC. We are unsure if its the BEC that’s dead, or if our pi/navigator is fried.

When we debugged, we simply unplugged the battery, swapped TX/RX in the adapter, and plugged the battery in again. After this, we havent been able to power the raspberry pi. It seems unlikely that swapping RX/TX is able to fry everything.

Does anyone know if it’s just the BEC that’s fried or if our pi/navigator is affected? How can we potentially debug/investigate, and what could the cause be?

2

Hi @Zukane
If no voltage is coming from the 5V BEC, then it has been damaged! Have you measured the output with a multimeter?

Plugging in a monitor via HDMI adapter will let you see if the Pi is booting correctly - do any leds light up on the Pi or Navigtor? There is a 3.3V and 5V LED indicating correct power on the Navigator…

I would guess that while you thought you were swapping tx/rx, maybe something else was?

3

We have measured the output with a multimeter. No output!
There is no lights coming from the pi.
We definitely did not swap anything other than rx/tx. Besides, the battery was plugged out.

4

Hi @Zukane -
Can you share a diagram illustrating how you wired your sensor to the system? Particularly how the sensor was powered, and ground shared with the USB adapter.

In the meantime, it sounds like you’re going to need a new 5V BEC