Fatal wiring error

[hapki]

I just reversed the polarity on my Prizm sound board. Smoke. Not good. I'm sure I'll have to send it off for repairs. This is the third board I've sent off for repairs. It is very embarrassing.

[Silver Serpent]

Ouch. You may need to look into using the prewired battery packs with JST connectors. The JST connectors only go one way, so it'll help prevent you from plugging the battery in the wrong way.

If you're wiring things up incorrectly, then I can't give you any advice other than to double-check all your wiring before applying power.

[Denz]

I know you know this already but remember to take your time and triple check your wiring. Use different color wires for each connection and you will minimize the chance of this happening.

I use the following color scheme:
Red : Batt Pos / Recharge port to board positive
Black : Batt negative
White : Recharge port to board negative
Grey : Activation switch
Brown: Aux switch
Light blue : speaker

etc...

-Denzil

[hapki]

Thanks all. I had it wired correctly, and everything was working perfectly, but I decided to save some space and shorten the wires from the battery. Apparently I got distracted, so when I hooked it up again....smoke. I won't make that mistake again, that's for sure.

[DarthFender]

Been there, done that. Sux but life goes on, and we learn. Mine got fried when I modified the battery pack to use a 9v style connector to a 4AA battery holder. I reversed the wires. Fried a MR board. cant send that off for repairs.

[Madcow]

I fried a CF once (long ago) doing the same thing. It happens to us all.

[Johannes Huber]

Denz' suggestion is a really good one. I started with nano biscottis (a great, rugged little board to learn on) and after the first one, the lesson learned was color coding, major color coding, since I was also running 4 accent lights off the board and ended up having to put tape with letters on it to keep track of which wire went where (imagine every wire being black or red...). Mistakes teach us more than successes somehow so don't feel embarrassed, since you'll already have a lot more knowledge than many about what you can and can't do with a particular board by the time you're done. That will save you down the road.