PPA – commissioning tests

What happens after you’ve finished soldering your shiny new Personal Particle Accelerator ?  Read on !

Just like other complex engineering, it’s best not to turn it on in one go because:

• an construction error (for example, in connecting the power system) could damage more than multiple modules
• it’s hard to know where to look if it doesn’t all work straight away
• it’s a handy future reference to have a baseline that a module worked on its own, before adding in other modules

If you encounter issues with the commissioning tests, please refer to debugging

Input Board and IRPS

With the input board disconnected from everything else as shown:

1. Connect +5V and GND via a temporary lead.
2. The power LED should light
3. Your power supply current draw should be around 40mA
4. The test points should match with your supply voltage.

Output Board

With the output board disconnected from everything:

1. Double check that you’ve remembered to set the potentiometer on the switching supply daughter board as required.
2. If your model has an adjustable 7805-footprint switching regulator, double check that you’ve set it to 5V
3. Connect 12V DC to the output board power inputs
4. Current draw should be around 65 mA

Complete unit

1. With the power disconnected, assemble all the modules and connect the power.
2. Re-connect 12V DC power.
3. Currrent draw should be around 190 mA.
4. The screen should display ‘Personal Particle Accelerator’.  If not, press the Arduino’s reset button and see if the screen resets.

Note: in this photo, the vacuum pump is electrically connected, but not pneumatically connected.