A tour inside the RC

[Rickertsen2]

I posted this already, but the host went down and the forum software wouldn't let me edit the URLS so i am posting it again. I will try to get a mod to delete the old thread

click any of the pics for a high res version
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I did some warranty vioding on the RC. Here are the results:
Here you can see the Hidden ISCP headers for the master and user processor as well as some pins labled TX and RX. I presume this is a tap to the data to the radio modem or a serial port on the master proc. Also visible is an unsoldered mystery header. I will trace these as well as the TX and RX pins when i have time. You can also see that ther is space for 3 more LEDs. That thing in the top middle is the user processor. Those two dimpled chips on the left are buffers which allow the mater processor to disable the user processor from controlling the relay outputs.



Here you can see the back of the board. Nothing too interesting here. More or less one big groundplane.




Here is an overview of the whole thing. At the right of the pic is the power supply circuirty which consists of three regulators, some diodes so that it doesn't explode when hooked up backwards, and some auto resetting fuses. The top regulator provides power 5v power to all the external pins such as the digital and analog IO ports. The middle regulator provides power to the internal curcuits of the RC itself. The circuitry which switches from main to backup power is at the top right around the orange fuse. The bottom regulator powers the OI when it is connected to the RC through tether. Intermingled with the power supply circuitry are the rs232 and rs485 converters for the program port, tether and the radio modem. In the middle of the image you can see the master processor and the user processor. They are the big square chips. The one on top is the master. It looks like they share a single crystal oscillator as a clock source(the little metal thing to the top right of the master processor.