My Cosmoneer isn't working right

[Cosmoneer]

You get your Cosmoneer all setup, plug it in and low and behold your Cosmoneer fails to complete its startup sequence.  We are sorry this has happened and hope this guide will help you successfully launch your Cosmoneer.

[Cosmoneer]

Your Cosmoneer relies on 12V 1A DC power to run the inductive power coils.  Please verify you are using the supplied 12V AC adapter or an equivalent.  If you have a voltmeter, it won't hurt to confirm your adapter is supplying what is needed.

[Cosmoneer]

Just like a real satellite, your Cosmoneer is totally reliant on a stable wireless power transfer system.  Simulating solar radiation, the inductive power coils transmit and receive electric current over the air.  While this air gap allows 1 degree of freedom, the distance between the transmitter and receiver coils can determine whether or not your Cosmoneer functions normally.

When properly setup, your Cosmoneer is capable of operating with a 5mm air gap between coils.  This translates into approximately 250mA of current.  A rough guide to this distance is about the same height as three US pennies stacked on top of each other (they are ~1.42mm each.)




To test your coils to see if they are able to sustain a Cosmoneer under any conditions, simply place your Cosmoneer directly onto the transmitter coil (unhooked, and without the sphere.)  One it is on the coil, plug in the stand and observe your Cosmoneer.  The motor should start up successfully and it should attempt a compass test.  Be sure to remove it from the stand once it initializes the calibration step, otherwise it will need to be re-calibrated the next time it is suspended from the hanger.



At this point you should not have any problem with your Cosmoneer starting the motor or manipulating the servo.  If your Cosmoneer fails to start, then coil alignment is not the culprit.

Review the following table if something failed to start.

• Nothing powers up  (Proceed to the Hanger Power troubleshooting step)
• The red LED is on, but nothing else happens (Proceed to Power troubleshooting step)
• Motor does not beep or spin up (Proceed to the Motor/ESC troubleshooting step)
• Servo is erratic or does not function(Proceed to the Servo troubleshooting step)
• The SuperBurst board never turns on (Proceed to the SuperBurst troubleshooting step)
• The OLED display is blank (Proceed to the Display troubleshooting step)

If your issue is not listed above, please post and we will update this list.

[Cosmoneer]

With the power stand unplugged from the outlet, place your bare Cosmoneer onto the hook and adjust the gap height so a single US penny can be inserted between the coils.  You will have better success with gauging the gap with two pennies, one on each side of the coil, placing them between the rear hanger arm and the two front legs.  Make sure the thread from the spool is threaded as shown in the attached picture.

With the gap set and the pennies removed, plug in the adapter and let the Cosmoneer proceed through its pre-programmed startup sequence.  To see what that looks like in action, watch the youtube video linked below:

https://youtu.be/UH1GJFlOgDs

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer appears to not be functioning.  Please bear with us as we step through some obvious and not-so-obvious issues that might be preventing your Cosmoneer from powering up.


1>  Check the wall outlet for A/C power (we suspect you already did this, but a reminder won't hurt.)
2>  Check the wall adapter is providing 12V DC power.
3>  Check the power coils are transferring power and the receiver coil is outputting 5V DC power.

We'll skip step 1 and jump to step 2 & 3.  To perform these steps, you'll need a voltmeter or multimeter that can measure DC voltages.

To perform step 2, plug in the wall adapter and then carefully insert the tip of your meter's positive (red) probe into the barrel of the wall adapter plug.  Then, touch the outer metal sleeve of the barrel plug with the negative (black) probe.  You should see a reading somewhere in the 12V range.  Above 12V is good, 13V is high and below 12V might be suspect, especially if it is lower than 11.7V.

Step 3 is a bit more tricky, but will tell us if power is flowing from the coil to the main board.  To start, locate pin 1 & 2 (pin 1 is the square pad) of the Arduino breakout pads.  (Note: This pinout arrangement follows the Pro-Mini configuration.)  Pin 1 is power and pin 2 is ground.

Now that you have identified the test points, take some scotch tape (or equivalent) and tape the Cosmoneer coils to each other, so your Cosmoneer is sitting directly on the hanger coil but will not fall off.  Once attached, plug in the wall adapter and then take your probes and touch the appropriate pins.  You should see 5 volts on your meter.

[Cosmoneer]

For this step, you'll need to pull the power inlet from the side of the hanger and plug in the 12V wall adapter.  What we are trying to determine here is whether the failed coil is the transmitter or the receiver.

Take your meter and switch it to AC power.  Don't worry, there isn't any high voltage going on in there!  We're expecting about 10V AC.  With the inside of the inlet exposed and the 12V adapter plugged in, take your probes and touch each one to one of the solder points for the transmitter coil.  Be sure not to short out the coil by crossing your probe tips!  Once you have tested the coil is receiving power from the transmitter board, move on to the receiver board on the Cosmoneer.

Leave the meter on A/C and with the Cosmoneer still taped to the stand, touch the probes to the two ends of the coil attached to the long/narrow receiver board.  You should read about 6.5 volts.  If not, then something is shorted in the receiver board and it needs to be replaced.

While you are here, go ahead and test the outputs from the receiver board.  Switch your meter back to DC volts (the 5v range) and test the red/black output side of the receiver board.  You should read ~5v if you read ~6.5V A/C on the coil side.  If not, again, this board is your culprit.

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer is receiving power but appears not to boot up.

For this step, you'll need the USB programmer and USB cable that came with your Cosmoneer and you'll need At least Arduino v1.6.2.  Plug the USB cable into your computer and plug the programmer into the Cosmoneer.  The Cosmoneer code ("Evolution_18_2... & Evolution_18_3...) have the serial port monitoring code commented out.  In order to see if the Atmega microcontroller is responding, you'll need to download "Evolution_16_8_MX_3A.ino" from GitHub and attempt to upload it to the Cosmoneer (a separate post will be provided to step you thought that process.)

If your computer fails to communicate with the Cosmoneer, troubleshooting the problems with the Cosmoneer mainboard are beyond the scope of this post step and will require you to contact us to arrange for return of your Cosmoneer for repair.

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer's motor and/or ESC is not functioning properly.

For this step, you'll need the USB programmer and USB cable that came with your Cosmoneer.  We're not going to do any programming, instead we're using the stable power and connection it provides to make it easier to measure power levels at various points to the ESC and to the motor itself.

Things that will need to be checked are

• Wiring connections are all correct
• Voltage level at the ESC (from the SuperBurst board)
• Solder joints at the flex circuit to connector junction (where the ESC connects to the gyro motor)
• ESC microcontroller state (locked-up or in a wait-state)

This first check is to confirm all the connectors are orientated correctly.  Both the servo and SuperBurst connectors attached to the Cosmoneer mainboard should have their signal wires facing outboard of the Cosmoneer, with the servo wire being the closes to the power receiver (white) connector at the corner of the board.



The ESC connects to the SuperBurst board on the LED side, or the leaded side of the super capacitor, depending on which side of the board you are looking at.  The ESC signal wire is furthest away from the LED, while the ground wire (brown) is closest to the LED.

The SuperBurst board connects to the mainboard via the opposing header.  The signal/power/ground pins are in the same orientation as the ESC pins, with the signal wire on the same outside PCB edge as the ESC connector.


This second check assumes the SuperBurst board is functioning correctly and is passing power to the ESC.  With the programming cable connected and the SuperBurst's green LED illuminated, take the test probes from your meter (which is set for DC measurment) and touch the red (positive) probe to the red or "middle" wire on the ESC's input connector that is plugged in to the SuperBurst board and touch the black (negative) probe to the brown/black wire on the same plug.

With the Cosmoneer starting up, you should see the voltage rising to roughly 4.0 volts.  If the motor were to start, you would see the voltage slowly drop to 3.0 volts.

The third check is to confirm the solder joints on the flex circuit have not been stressed beyond their limit and have broken.


If all of the above appears to be working, then the final check is to confirm the ESC is working, and what state it is in.  For this complete step, you will need a servo tester.

If, during power-up or ESC start-up, you disturbed the Cosmoneer, the ESC may have become confused and is stuck in an "in-between" state, waiting for PWM input for a command it unintentionally is now waiting for.  Some ESCs may recover by removing their connection to the SuperBurst board and letting them sit for about ten minutes.  Other ESCs have responded to being connected to a Servo tester and following the ESC startup instructions (http://cosmospioneering.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MX-3A_ESC_blhelimanualsilabsrev11.x.pdf).  Worst case, the ESC is bad and needs to be replaced with another MX-3A ESC.


The Gyro motor is a 5v brushless outrunner motor.  Worst case, magnetic material has become attracted to the inside of the motor and the motor no longer spins freely.  However, if the motor does not beep during the ESC power up sequence, then the ESC is most likely the culprit.  If you want to test the motor separately, you will the servo tester mentioned above and a fully charged 4.3v single LIPO cell.  Connect the suspect ESC (with motor attached) to the servo tester and follow the ESC's start-up instructions.

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer's servo is not functioning properly.

Things that will need to be checked are:

• Connector is orientated correctly
• Voltage level to the gimbal servo is sufficient
• The Servo responds to a non-pulsewidth modulated signal

This first check is to confirm all the connectors are orientated correctly. The gimbal servo connector attached to the Cosmoneer mainboard should have its yellow signal wire facing outboard of the Cosmoneer, with the gimbal servo wire being the closest to the (white) power receiver connector at the corner of the mainboard.

For the second check, you'll need your voltmeter/multimeter.  With your Cosmoneer temporarily attached to the hanger coil via scotch tape and the power adapter plugged in, touch the positive probe to the "+" point and the negative probe to the "-" point indicated in the image below.  You should measure between 4.8v and 5.1v.



For the third check, you will need three male jumper wires and a 5v power source.  You will be mimicking a PWM signels full on and full off state, which will drive the servo from one end to the other in one sudden jerk.  To do this, you'll need to insert two of your jumper wires into the servo cable's female header's brown and red wire positions.  The third wire will need to be inserted into the remaining yellow wire header position.  The other end will be what you touch to your GND and +5v power source leads.  Switch between +5v and ground a few times to make sure the servo responds by rotating the gyro motor 180 degrees one way, then the other.  If your servo fails to perform any motion during this test, then your servo will need to be replaced.

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer's SuperBurst board is not functioning properly.

Things that will need to be checked are:

• Connector is orientated correctly
• Voltage level to the SuperBurst board is sufficient
• Confirm voltage switch trip point

This first check is to confirm all the connectors are orientated correctly. The SuperBurst + ESC connector is adjacent to the Gimbal servo connector that is next to the white power connector on the back corner of the Cosmoneer mainboard.





For the second check, you'll need your voltmeter/multimeter.  With your Cosmoneer temporarily attached to the hanger coil via scotch tape and the power adapter plugged in, touch the positive probe to the "+" point and the negative probe to the "-" point indicated in the image below.  You should measure between 4.8v and 5.1v.




All SuperBurst boards are equipped with a voltage detector ic (and sometimes trip point adjustment resistors.)  This voltage detector is marked as "U1" om the board and is located at 2 o'clock from the open hardware logo.  The purpose of U1 is to hold the Mosfets closed via the NPN transistors, which are pulled low and kept deactivated during the charging cycle, thus allowing voltage to flow to the Mosfet gates and closing them.  Once the 2.7v threshold is reached, the detector goes high, turning on the transistors and pulling the Mosfet gates low and opening them.

The dual power path of the board enables normal current to initially flow freely to the ESC via a single Mosfet, Schottky diode and then the final output Mosfet gate.  The Mosfet prior to the diode along this path is kept off during the supercap charging cycle so the charging energy flows solely through the 20ohm 1Amp resistor.

The supercap powerpath is allowed to pre-charge before the energy is exposed to downstream circuitry.  A pair of back-to-back Mosfets act as a bi-directio0nal switch, capable of blocking voltage and current in both directions.  The gates of these Mosfets could be broken out and controlled, if the need arose to do so, which would allow the supercap to be exposed to the ESC ONLY during motor start-up periods.



The Schottky diodes are excellent places to troubleshoot the voltage, as they will tell you if power is flowing through the first stage mosfets and will also tell you if they have dropped the voltage after the diode.

Q4, the 1st stage direct power Mosfet is also an excellent test point to determine if the main powerpath is being provided energy after charging is completed.  If ~5v is not being read between the Mosfet and the diode, then the Mosfet has gone bad and needs to be replaced.

Q5, the final stage Mosfet and its transistor driver can be tested when the board indicates it is charged (the LED is illuminated) but no power is being allowed through the Mosfet.  If the transistor is being powered and is driving the gate low, but the Mosfet is still closed then the Mosfet is bad.  If the transistor is being powered but is not pulling the Mosfet's gate low, then the transistor is bad.  This will manifest itself (when the Cosmoneer is placed in the sphere and a 2mm gap is observed between the bottom of the sphere and the hanger coil) as a slow drop in voltage to the motor, which can be heard as the whine of the motor decreases until the SuperBurst's voltage detector briefly turns off, restarting the ESC and stopping the motor completely.

(The SuperBurst spec sheet can be found here:
http://cosmospioneering.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/SuperBurst-SpecSheet.pdf)

[Cosmoneer]

If you have been directed to this step then your Cosmoneer's OLED Display is not functioning properly.


Things that will need to be checked are:

• Connector is fully seated
• Wires are not pinched or broken
• I2C solderable jumper setting on back of board is connected
• Confirm voltage at OLED
• Confirm other I2C devices are working as expected