I believe I have burn out two arduino boards now with my project. one mega and one uno and im not sure why.
i am powering my board with a 12 volt 5 amp car battery charger. (not connected to any car).
i have a "buck" step down voltage converter board connected to the charger adjusted to bring down the voltage to around 6 volts. (tested with a multimeter).
If anyone is wondering, I need the higher volts and amps to supply power to the motors in my project so the larger power supply is ideal for them.
my boards began malfunctioning after being used in my project for a couple hours. when the first stopped working i thought it coincidence. now the replacement has malfunctions the same way.
its kind of odd. the boards still function just fine in my project, but i can no longer get a computer to recognize them for uploading a sketch.
the boards get power from usb but no longer show up in the device manager or get a system noise when plugged in. I have fully troubleshooted.after fully disconnecting the boards from my project i have plugged them into two working computers and tryed two working usb cables. and my third board that i have not used in my project takes uploads just fine. so i beleive somehow the serial communications are fried on both.
im still learning about electronics. is it OK to supply more amps than needed in a circut if voltage is correct?
all my negatives are connected before the voltage step down is that ok?
anything else that could cause an arduino board to become "UnProgrammable"?