Wheelhaus
Veteran
Location: Denver
| Well, I finally figured out why I've been having so many problems trying to program my V-Stabi. It's been months since I've flown it due to some severe inconsistencies during programming. I thought a crash had screwed up the CPU or something. The latest problem was that it would only say "connected" when I switched banks from the Tx. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. Either way the settings would only get partially saved at best. I was about to chalk it up to crash damage or warranty and just ship the whole mess back to Uli, but that's not how I operate... If I can troubleshoot something and fix it, that's always my first goal. So, I FINALLY nailed the problem!
The damn PC cable.
I had a bad cable to begin with, the thin wires broke from the connector pins within a month or two earlier this year. Fortunately enough, the 6-pin connector is the same spacing as two 3-pin Rx plugs. So I had some blank plugs and pins and rewired it. It lasted for a month before it was cutting in and out again, but the pins were perfectly fine and the wires were intact. I suspected the pin's solder joints on the board.
So last night I committed myself to figuring out what the problem was, and if I could even fix it. I first disassembled the mixer case. The board has a very clean layout and was SOLID. Solder joints are flawless, so that couldn't be it. I started off by using a multimeter to check continuity of the cable's internal wires. (Thankfully serial connectors are very straight forward, one wire to one pin, no chips or anything). I mapped each of the colored wires inside the cable to each pin on the 9-pin serial connector. The only three colors used for the 6-pin connector are Red, Orange, and Green. I could map every color BUT Orange. It wouldn't show a reading. However, since every other wire gave a positive reading, I knew which pin wasn't connected. Bingo.
So I proceeded to strip back the wire until I found the problem spot. If need be, I could just buy another female serial cable and simply map the 3 pins again. But this was 10pm at night and everythign is closed. I had to remove over 1 foot of cable to expose the damaged spot. Sure enough, the insulation on the orange wire was stretched and the wire was broken internally. How? I have no idea since it's never been kinked or creased...
Anyways, I used two servo extensions since they're much beefier and more durable than the thin wires inside the serial cable. I soldered/heatshrunk the three required wires apropriately and attached the servo extension wires very firmly to the serial cable housing with vinyl tape. It's physically much stronger now and all stress is relieved from the thin internal serial wires. The connection to the mixer is perfectly consistent; queries and changes are accepted instantly. Phew.
I can post pictures and a diagram if anyone ever needs to "rebuild" the serial cable or just make a longer one. Let me know and I'll get it up by this weekend.
..........
Dave
|
has an usb connector. So you can use a standard usb cable.
