myDigital Protoboard question.

[Kato]

I have the myDigital Protoboard and I keep having a problem of the light being to dim or not turning on at all. It usually only activates if I touch the bottom plate. Any suggestions or help? In this video, I have a simple 3-input XOR gate. So when I just have the second switch on, it should light up.

 

[JColvin]

Hi @Kato,

I'm not fully certain I understand your hardware setup, but what I would try would be to change the wires to use different switches and LEDs to help ensure there isn't any hardware issue with the physical components. I would probably also recommend asking on the NI forum, https://forums.ni.com/t5/Discussion-Forums/ct-p/discussion-forums?profile.language=en, about your setup.

Thanks,
JColvin

[Kato]

On 3/29/2021 at 7:06 PM, JColvin said:

Hi @Kato,

I'm not fully certain I understand your hardware setup, but what I would try would be to change the wires to use different switches and LEDs to help ensure there isn't any hardware issue with the physical components. I would probably also recommend asking on the NI forum, https://forums.ni.com/t5/Discussion-Forums/ct-p/discussion-forums?profile.language=en, about your setup.

Thanks,
JColvin

I just hope I do not have a faulty board. Is there any suggestions on how to properly test the functionality of the board to make sure?

[LabMan]

Hi,

From the video it looks like you have connected the Vreg to the + rail and the GND to the -. I can't see if you have connected Vreg to 5v. Can someone from Digilent confirm if you can't release schematics. The "DIM" Led and "touch" flashing looks like a floating signal to me...

This relates to a question I had about using the onboard LEDs, buttons etc while only powered from the Vext. Is it a problem to connect the Vreg to the 5v whilst not connected to the MyDAQ for general use?

Thanks.

LM

[JColvin]

Hello,

Years late on my end, but the 5 V and VREG are normally isolated from one another. Vreg is only sourced from an external voltage (via the barrel jack connector) and can be set via the JP1 jumper block to either be regulated to 5 V or 3.3 V.

The 5 V rail (along with the +15 V and -15 V rails) are normally sourced from the 20-pin greenish myDAQ connector.

However, as the switches and buttons are linked to the 5 V rail (each input has a 200 ohm series resistor as noted in the Reference Manual), if there is no myDAQ to provide power, you would need to "jumper" the Vreg rail to the 5 V rail in order to get the active high signals to then send (via additional jumper wires) to the LED inputs (which have their own 390 ohm current limiting resistor).

So, if there is no myDAQ, there is not a problem connecting Vreg to the 5 V rail. You could also connect Vext to the 5 V rail instead, but be wary of what voltage you are then subjecting any on-board circuitry to.

Thanks,
JColvin

P.S. Regrettably, I'm still not allowed to post the myDigital Protoboard schematics.