HELP!!!! My Raven 3 lost its speaker!

It turns on and appears to be working, but I cannot tell if any charges are armed or not. No beeps. No chirps. No nothing. The only contact with Featherweight is an e-mail, and all attempts bave bounced back saying that the mailbox is full. I needed that thing for NYPower and now I look like I am SOL.

EeebeeE said:

It turns on and appears to be working, but I cannot tell if any charges are armed or not. No beeps. No chirps. No nothing. The only contact with Featherweight is an e-mail, and all attempts bave bounced back saying that the mailbox is full. I needed that thing for NYPower and now I look like I am SOL.

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What happened to the Raven? Did it take a hard hit? I had a crashed Parrot that survived a devastating ballistic crash as it rode in the aft end of the ebay and
I had an over-engineered reinforced bulkhead in front of it. The onboard battery I replaced and the buzzer was broke. Found a number on the buzzer and
ordered another one, exactly the same, from an electronic concern. Downloaded an interesting parabolic pattern of the flight followed by horrendous
G's when it hit. Look for a number on the buzzer and see if you can get a replacement. Will take some deft SMT desoldering/solder to affect the change out.
You have to ask the question though if it took a big hit is the board competent for further flight? I say that because I bought a new Raven III one time, used
a carpenters spring clamp to hold the capacitor on the board while the epoxy dried. The clamp slipped during the process and whacked the board. Whenever power is applied to the Raven, if one twists the board ever so slightly the Raven recycles and is therefore unsafe for flight. Painful lesson. I don't use clamps
anymore for tacking components down anymore. Kurt

None of that. I installed it on one sled and got it set up. It was working fine. Removed it and installed to another sled. Fired it up. No noise. I'm screwed. Needed this for NYPower this weekend. Tried e-mailing Featherweight but the e-mail bounced.

Did you put it back on the original board to test functionality?

I have one I can loan on the premise of "you break it, you buy it".

let me know.

Just did. A while ago I got one beep. Then nothing. I might take you up on the offer.

Do the lights blink? Are you holding it vertical?

EeebeeE said:

Just did. A while ago I got one beep. Then nothing. I might take you up on the offer.

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Let me know ASAP as I will have to drop it in the mail for you.....

I am not attending NYP.

Success!!!! Found the broken solder and reattached it. I'm back in business!

EeebeeE said:

Success!!!! Found the broken solder and reattached it. I'm back in business!

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Was it a poor joint or what?

ksaves2 said:

Was it a poor joint or what?

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The positive connection of the speaker I don't think bonded well with the surface. A small jar could have knocked it loose. Oh well. It is re-soldered and the capacitor is now epoxied to the board, which is recommended for high G flights. Some of that epoxy found its way to the speaker so everything should hold in place nicely.

You be in the good then. Have fun. Kurt

EeebeeE said:

The positive connection of the speaker I don't think bonded well with the surface. A small jar could have knocked it loose.

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That happened to me, although it wasn't exactly a small jar. I was able to re-solder it, but not to the board itself, and it has flown since.

Jim

I think the Raven has a multi-layer board. The new unit (sob!) I wrecked with a carpenter's clamp I think affected an embedded trace as I couldn't see anything
abnormal under high magnification. Turn the board on, let is cycle to standby, give it just a little torsion and it goes back to "cycle *** mode. Obviously
unfit for flight. Kurt

Ravens seem to be a little fragile, I've broken two of them. One where the pressure sensor mysteriously broke off the board. And one in a rocket that hit the ground under drogue but the only thing damaged was the Raven altimeter. Now I use only Missleworks altimeters.

Nathan said:

Ravens seem to be a little fragile, I've broken two of them. One where the pressure sensor mysteriously broke off the board. And one in a rocket that hit the ground under drogue but the only thing damaged was the Raven altimeter. Now I use only Missleworks altimeters.

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I am finding that out. The only thing I can figure is that I dropped this unit on the floor from about 3'. It should not have been damaged. My Adept 22's, Stratologgers, MARSA, and Eggtimer altimeters have probably been knocked off the workbench at least once in their respective lifetimes and they have survived the falls. My challenge is that I have very little room in my altimeter bay for a 29mm minimum diameter 2-stage rocket (see my build thread, "Going for 100,000 Feet") and I need the Raven because it can handle staging.

Given the price, though, it could be a little sturdier.

I think the Raven has a multi-layer board. The new unit (sob!) I wrecked with a carpenter's clamp I think affected an embedded trace as I couldn't see anything
abnormal under high magnification. Turn the board on, let is cycle to standby, give it just a little torsion and it goes back to "cycle *** mode. Obviously
unfit for flight. Kurt

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Could be one of the chip resistors or capacitors fractured. Measure the resistors if you can, although being in-circuit measurements there might be problems. Measure and/or inspect the capacitors (a more likely culprit) for fine cracks if you can too. They usually go low impedance.

If you inspect with at least 10x magnification any joint issues should be visible with enough light.

EeebeeE said:

Given the price, though, it could be a little sturdier.

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FWIW, I've crashed several. They don't survive coming in ballistic but hard landings like drogueless without a main have been OK.

Getting dropped on the floor could be expected to cause more damage than being on a sled inside a rocket -- depends on the floor and how the unit lands.

mikec said:

FWIW, I've crashed several. They don't survive coming in ballistic but hard landings like drogueless without a main have been OK.

Getting dropped on the floor could be expected to cause more damage than being on a sled inside a rocket -- depends on the floor and how the unit lands.

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Agreed. My flight at Balls 22 ended up on top of Razorback Mountain. It was drogueless and the main didn't deploy because the unit never reached 800ft agl on descent for the main ematch to fire as it ended up 4,950ft asl on the mountain. I left the states and came back to Australia without it as my hobby is rockety, not mountain climbing. James Sampayan went for a hike roughly a month later, recovered the rocket for me, and mailed it back to Australia for me. I was able to recover the flight data from the Raven and fly it again. All electronics were in a Shockwave VK NC which sustained significant damage. Yet the Raven was fine and has been flown since.

YMMV but I've actually found them quite robust.

mikec said:

FWIW, I've crashed several. They don't survive coming in ballistic but hard landings like drogueless without a main have been OK.

Getting dropped on the floor could be expected to cause more damage than being on a sled inside a rocket -- depends on the floor and how the unit lands.

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I hear mixed responses on its robustness, both here and on the field. This one did survive one flight pretty well, and I expect it will handle my altitude attempt OK, although it is going to come in under streamer, so the ground hit is going to be faster than usual.

The speaker was only held into place with 2 very small solders and the solder did not look as if it had bonded properly to the board. I said "it broke" but it actually came loose. It is one of the larger components on the board, and it could have used a little more support. As too could the capacitor, although Featherweight recommends epoxying it to the board of high G flights. I would suggest that it wouldn't hurt for some of that epoxy to also find its way between the speaker and the board. There was about a 1/64" gap in mine. The rest of the circuitry looks well-secured.

It's a great little computer. Accurate, versatile, and small. I hope this is the only problem I have with it.

EeebeeE said:

It turns on and appears to be working, but I cannot tell if any charges are armed or not. No beeps. No chirps. No nothing. The only contact with Featherweight is an e-mail, and all attempts bave bounced back saying that the mailbox is full. I needed that thing for NYPower and now I look like I am SOL.

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What mailbox did you find to be full? You can email me at [email protected].