Hold on, I think the images might have been deceiving. I believe it’s the “S6” component? Or is it getting toasty because of the regulator?
Is D4 the component that’s getting the hottest? That would be a protection zener diode that could have very well failed under the full battery voltage. It’s not the safest thing to do and my official recommendation would be to replace it. BUT if it’s causing the short, removing it and doing a quick test should be safe-ish…
Regulator, based entirely on how easy it is to remove. After that…I would go for the DRV, but it’s a completely different beast. Also I don’t know we’re to find one these days, but maybe someone here has one to spare.
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actually if I get my hot air working again I should be able to salvage one from my DV6 pro that I blew up, no clue if the DRV chips are okay but out of 2 I might have one good one.
chip shortage is a bitch though.
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Just tried removing the regulator, no luck. Along with some capacitors that hade continuity with ground on both sides. No luck still.
Also removed the coil for good measure, still shorting. Could there be a bad solder somewhere, got so hot that it melted over to a nearby pin?
MCU and/or CAN transceiver?
Finally no short after removing the T1L diode. No clue what to do now, put everything back, check if it still shorts and if not, replace the diode?
Exactly that, but checking for shorts after you install every single component. Let me see what that diode does…
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Alright, put back everything accept one of those tiny capacitors. It managed to slip out of my pliers. On the bright side still no short, so I’m relatively sure it’s only that diode which is casuing the problem.
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99% sure is a TVS diode that did exactly what it should have: protect the rest of components from voltage surges. It’s not a guarantee that everything survived, but you need to find that capacitor for sure. Once you find it, I would look for a replacement TVS, maybe even contact Maker-X for the exact part you need. I cannot recommend that you ride that board without the TVS, but a quick test could be fine just to see if it’s alive
Alright good to know, learning a lot. I think that capacitor is lost in action, I should be able to find a viable replacement though. Although how would I go about finding a replacement diode? This one looks promising, how do I know which one it is, the only info I have is that it says KE? Smbj5.0ca Do-214aa Marking (ke) 5v Smb Smd Tvs Diode New & Original - Buy Smbj5.0ca,5v Smb Tvs Diode,Ke Smd Tvs Diode Product on Alibaba.com
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Probably any TVS diode with appropriate standoff voltage and the same packaging would do, however…I would still ask Maker-X, they’ll probably be happy to help and tell you the exact specifications (for example, in that listing, if 5V is the breakdown voltage it won’t work).
Regarding the capacitor, it is probably easier to look for the exact number in the VESC6 schematic and verify the correct value.
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This is (I think) just because the capacitors are discharged and one pin is connected to ground. If a cap is discharged and there’s no voltage across it then the terminals are at the same(ish) potential, and they’ll respond to small voltages for shortish periods of time as a “short”. I’m open to correction here but I think it’s enough to fool a continuity check on a multimeter and can be a troubleshooting pitfall. Usually for caps you’ve got to either hold the terminals in place for long enough that the cap is charged by them a bit, or know your multimeter’s design or behaviour really well to make your own procedure for caps.
Usually if you get a sort of hesitant or uncertain beeping, where it beeps on first contact and then goes off after a few seconds and occasionally beeps again, that’s just a capacitor behaving normally. If it’s a consistent short (uninterrupted beeping) then either the cap is dead and is a proper short, or something is broken in the circuit around it so both pads it’s connected to are shorted to ground
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Tried to find some spare TVS, had trouble finding one that was close to 5V (above that is). I tried testing it for a few seconds. Two blue lights and one blinking red light, the DVS seems to be getting unusually hot. Looking at the schematics I have no idea how to locate the relevant capacitor, it was hard enough to deduct which diode to look at.
Red light means a fault, probably the DRV is not properly soldered (look for shorts between legs). Blue light is just power (good), green that the MCU is up and running (better)
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Can you take a picture of the missing capacitor?
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