Arduino Robot won't power on from batteries

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

On just battery power, nothing happens (as in no power leds) when I turn the switch to on.

I've tested the batteries and all 4 of them are supplying 1.33(ish) volts. With all of them in place, I checked the connection from the batteries to the motor board and I get 5.4 volts. But, again, when I turn the switch on, no lights.

If I plug the USB into the motor board, the control board display and the PWR led come on and I can upload sketches to the control board and run them on the display. The ON led on the motor board doesn't come on, even if I change the on/off switch.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

2

Dead batteries will often show a significant voltage on a voltmeter. To tell if your batteries are dead you have to measure the voltage under load.

3

Ok, I'll try this and then update the topic.

Assume the batteries came out of the box dead.
Charge it for three hours, as per the manual.
Try again.
If it doesn't work, I'll try the batteries in Sparki (Arcbotics) because I know he works.

4

Update:

I charged the batteries for 3 hours. I unplugged the charger from the robot and turned it on with the same effect. I put the batteries in a different robot (Sparki by Arcbotics) and he worked just fine.

So it's not the batteries.

Ideas?

Thanks,
Bill

5

The schematic of the MotorBoard shows a 2.5A fuse and a mosfet switch before the power switch. Either or both of those could be blown. The online documentation sucks. The only schematic I can find is in Eagle format and very cryptic. The product is now, apparently, obsolete. I hope it came with a user manual that tells you where to look for the fuse.