Electronics Panel Work at Mike's

Last night I worked on correcting my mishap from a couple of days ago, when I inadvertently reversed polarity on the power connectors between the battery and the electronics board, and fried my voltage regulator. The first thing I did was remove the old power connector from the electronics board, and swap it with the proper connector, so that won't happen again.



I also took a shot at replacing the voltage regulator. After a couple of hours of trying to solder no less than five leads (two decoupling capacitors, receiver ground, automation circuit ground and 12-volt ground) to the center pin on the voltage regulator, I surrendered and asked Mike for help.



He had it done tonight in less than five minutes. It helps when you have the tools and skill to use them.





Mike suggested that I avoid frying anything in the future by attaching diodes to the power inputs on my components. He provided some 1-amp diodes, which I soldered in parallel for the input to the CFSound III card.



A short time later, I had the CFSound III and automation circuit protected from reverse polarity.




Meanwhile, Mike continued working on his WALL•E build.

Sparks!



WALL•E's arms are the current item under construction.





Back home, the electronics panel is ready for duty. Hopefully tomorrow I can get it installed and running.