Hello!

Yes, it is not harmfull at all. I am always tuning gimbal with USB and LiPo connected.

To anyone thinking of trying this, DON'T DO IT!
I found this thread while checking to see if this would be safe, and was lulled into a false sense of security by this reassurance.

I plugged my board into a 3S Lipo, then plugged the USB into my laptop with the front end software ready.

My PC immediately turned off, and the chip on the gimbal controller next to the lipo connection released its magic smoke.

I was sad to lose my gimbal controller before I even got to use it. I was even more sad it took my new laptop with it. It's toast.

it was an 8-bit board. To add insult to injury, the board still works powered by USB, but not from lipo, so it can't power any motors. My laptop is gone though, just completely dead.

I suspect it was a Chinese fake board, but it has Basecam Electronics written all over it.

I would post a picture, but can't see how. It was the one with two 3 pin connectors for Pitch and Roll, and a space for a third connector for yaw, all along the one edge.

Here you go:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=e1a08e4623c452a4!724&authkey=!AExVHdoneWIgMhI&ithint=folder,jpg

There's a picture of the front of the board, the back of the board, and a close-up of the component that burned.

Thanks, Garug, for the identification. I guessed it was a regulator, but was unable to identify it from the partial code remaining.

Yes, it explains why it no longer works from battery power. What surprised me wasn't that, but that burning out the regulator managed to toast my PC through the USB, but left the rest of the gimbal controller board working. I had thought that the microcontroller would also be toast.

I am not entirely sure what happened myself. I will detail exactly what I did.

On receiving the board, I connected it to a PC, and verified that the sensor worked in the front end application. Everything fine.

I then assembled the gimbal with motors, mounted the camera so the weight would be correct, and having read that it was not safe to connect motors while only on USB power, then powered it with a battery. I expected it to be strange as it was not yet configured.

It powered up, the motors briefly moved feebly, then it stopped and flashed the green light quickly. I unplugged it from the battery and plugged again. This time no motion, just green flashing.

It was at that point that I decided to plug it into the PC to see if the front end would tell me what was wrong, and to tweak the settings. I checked here whether it should be safe, and reassured by the message from Mr. Alexmos himself, gave it a try.

Of course, I never got any further.

It makes me wonder if something had already failed on the board, which is what caused the feeble motor motion then nothing.

I may replace the regulator and see if it works after that, but I certainly won't be connecting the board to a PC again when on battery power.

Looking at the pictures of the board, were you able to tell if it is a fake?

Thanks again for your help.

I have this same board and can connect Battery and USB at the same time. no problem.
I am having trouble trying to communicate and flash it.
Is it a 32 bit board? are there flash pins? is it a real Basecam?
Thanks.

Ah OK thanks. it's also 8 bit chip I see.

My board is 8-bit and I ALWAYS connect first the battery and then the USB.

Why? Because I read all over the Internet using just the USB power might burn the controller, and because without battery, my motors can't supply enough power to hold the camera into position... by far. I tested it... accidentally. Luckily, it didn't burn.

Too bad...

Anyway, tell us how the repairs go!

Best regards.

Hello Garug,

I am new on this forum, and this is my first post. I experienced a weird problem yesterday. I was running my gopro using the Alexmos gimbal. Everything was working perfectly fine. But then when I tried to run it again after few hours, I realized that when I attach 1000mAh, 3S lipo, the green light on controller board will turn on and off every second, and motor makes clicking sound and gimbal no longer works. But as soon as I attach it to my laptop's usb port, everything starts working fine! So now I have to apply power from lipo as well as from usb port to make gimbal work :-(. Lipo voltage is okay. Nothing looks smoked/burnt on the controller board. It still looks like 100% OK! Can you guide me how to troubleshoot this problem?

Thank you..!

I have seen the board only function when the USB cable was attached (and not with the battery only). Replacing the 5V regulator on the board fixed it.