E-Mag powering Warp, vibration sensor problems

[DoubleDutch]

Hi all,

I have my Warp and Revvy set to run off the E-Mag battery. The power going to the warp has a 12V regulator and capacitors, as shown in RobAGD's instructions. I am using the vibration sensor to trigger the warp.

Problem: When I turn up the blue pot to where the warp does not miss any shots, once I shoot once, the warp will run continuously.

I checked the voltage going into the warp, and it is around 11V when supplied by the E-Mag battery. When I use two batteries to provide the input voltage to the regulator, it outputs 11V too, but the warp work as I would expect, it spins just a little (I have all J1 jumpers in) when I tap it.

Is this the "dirty" current problem I have read about? I have the 100 microF capacitors between the input and ground, and the output and ground, pins of the regulator. Do I need different size capacitors? Any other ideas what might fix this?



Some other info that might or might not help:

When I had the warp running using the PTP vibration plate, the warp would not continuously spin, but I noticed that it would spin about a half revolution, even with all the J1 jumpers in. When I powered it using two 9V batteries, it would only spin 10 degrees or so.

When there are no balls in the warp, the problem is less severe: I had it to where the warp would work correctly and only spin once each shot, as long as there were no balls in the warp. When I put some balls in it, and the motor was pushing the balls against my detent, I would see the problem with continuous running. It seems the problem is more pronounced when there is a load on the motor.

[the123]

Hi, I had a similar setup just without Rob's reg/capacitor design(I had had an electronics engineer build me a couple of nice small regulators). Mine too was in the 11v range. I suffered from the same issue trying to use the vib sensor. It seemed that an increase in voltage(beyond 9v) made the Warp spin-happy. The E-mag battery could never keep up with the demand of all 3 devices. The first thing to show a slowdown was the revvy, at least for me. Thankfully, the the E-mag to Warp cable fixed that issue. With the jumpers set to the lowest spin time, the system with just warp and e-mag worked pretty well with a fully charged battery. I never got through a whole day of play (3000+ balls) without the battery keeping up, I also had 3 batteries to choose from. Perhaps the newer E-mag batteries in the Dealer section would suffice. After all the tinkering was done I wound up with my ultimate setup: E-mag, warp w/ 2 9v energizers in parallel w/ on-off switch, and Halo on it's normal 6xAA. While shooting semi, with Warp/revvy combo, in long strings I could outshoot the revvy still. When we had no level 10, it ment CHOP. The Halo fixed that. Also shooting left with the gun upside down the Halo gave me about 10 extra shots before gravity got the better of me. I was unaware of a difference in a PTP vibration sensor and an AGD one?? Good luck on your situation.

[Ando]

You have to adj the sensior down, the extra power going to the motor is setting the warp off and make sure you have your jumpers right. There's 2 sets of jumpers. One set (left side) is to adj how long it turns per pull and the other is to switch from senser to a interface cable.

[DoubleDutch]

I have two warps, one with the vibration sensor internally, one with an external one that plugged into the external port, I am assuming the latter is the PTP version. With the external sensor, my setup worked fine, I never experienced slowdown on either the warp or the revvy, and I have the original 650 mAh battery. I haven't played long days with it yet though.

I guess I can try using the e-mag to warp cable and bypass the sensor.

Ando, when I turned down the sensitivity, to where the warp would not spin continuously anymore, the warp would start missing shots. I am talking extremely small adjustments to where one problem would become the other, I don't think it is possible to find a happy medium.

[DoubleDutch]

Another thing, 123... When I used the regulator with 2 9V batteries as opposed to the E-Mag battery, I would not get the "spin happy" warp problem, which leads me to believe that in my case, over 9V is fine, it is just over 9V from the E-Mag is the problem.

[vf-xx]

Wonder if it's noise on the line or something. Possibly a voltage spike under load?

I'd say just hook the warp to the emag board and be done with it.

Hrm. I really need to get a charger in, then a post up about the warp batteries I use. LiPo FTW!

[Ando]

New motors cause a pretty good amout of feedback. I beleve it states that in the instruction manual. Might just need to run it with a harness till the motor breaks in. I have my e-mag setup with the warp cable and RF chip linked to the hopper. Both connectd in the same port with a Y cable. Might just be what you need to do till the motor runs it course.

EDIT:

Another thing, 123... When I used the regulator with 2 9V batteries as opposed to the E-Mag battery, I would not get the "spin happy" warp problem, which leads me to believe that in my case, over 9V is fine, it is just over 9V from the E-Mag is the problem.

Mag battery output is about 20+ volts I thought. Might be all the noise the volt regulator is trying to regulate at one time causing all the feedback making the warp go stupid.

[DoubleDutch]

Yes it could be spike under load, because the problem is worse if it is pushing against a unmoving ball stack, as opposed to spinning empty.

The warp in question is pretty new, I picked it up from someone who claimed it was BNIB.

Another strange thing is happening... I tried my old warp, and with 9V's the prime button won't work anymore, and the vibration plate won't either. But, powering it through the E-Mag, and using the E-Mag-Warp cable to trigger it, it works. Using the power from the E-Mag with the vibration plate, it doesn't work, and neither does using 9V's and the E-Mag-Warp cable. When it does run, it seems like the jumpers do not adjust the spin anymore.

The prime button not working tells me I fried something perhaps? And that it only works with the E-Mag power and cable, because I am completing a circuit somewhere, and that is why it spins? That would explain why it spins just a little, irrespective of the jumper settings. If I fried something, do I need an entire new board to resurrect this warp? Anyone got one they are selling?

[the123]

If the warp in question is new, has the motor been broken in?
Its easy to fry a warp board, I wish they were more robustly built. It sounds like the board may be bad if primer button doesnt work. I wonder if an aftermarket board could be used? Re-program a predator? Or morlock board?