ST3215 All Motors Undetectable After Manual Backdrive During Teleoperation - Need Help
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Hello everyone,
I'm in a difficult situation and would really appreciate any help. I have 6 ST3215 30kg.cm serial bus servo motors from Waveshare that completely stopped responding after I accidentally manually moved my robot arm while testing teleoperation.
WHAT HAPPENED:
I was testing teleoperation with phosphobot software, controlling my SO-101 robotic arm, when I made a mistake and manually back-drove the arm while the motors were still powered and actively controlled. The moment I did this, all 6 motors instantly lost communication. They still receive power (the red LED is solid on all motors, and I measure 12V at the terminals), but no software can detect them anymore.THE TRIGGER:
- I was running phosphobot for teleoperation testing
- I manually moved the robot arm while motors were powered and under active control
- Result: Complete loss of communication with all 6 motors at the same timeWHAT I'VE TRIED SO FAR:
- Extended power cycle - unplugged both 12V and USB for over 10 minutes
- Tested every baud rate: 1000000, 500000, 115200, 57600, 38400, 19200
- Used FD SCServo Debug Qt software - Search finds absolutely nothing
- Tried LeRobot framework motor scan - Failed, no motors detected
- Switched USB ports and cables multiple times
- Double-checked all connections - everything is secure
- Measured voltage at the motors - 12V is definitely present
- Ran motor ID scan from 0 to 253 - Not a single response
- The Waveshare driver board itself is working fine (LED on, /dev/ttyACM0 shows up)CURRENT STATUS:
- Power: Motors are getting 12V, red LED is solid on each motor
- Physical condition: Motor shafts rotate freely by hand, which tells me torque is disabled
- Communication: Completely dead. No Ping response, no ID detection, nothing
- All 6 motors affected at exactly the same time
- This happened during an active teleoperation sessionMY SETUP:
- Motors: ST3215 30kg.cm (Waveshare Serial Bus Servo)
- Controller: Waveshare Serial Bus Servo Driver Board
- Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- Software: phosphobot (teleoperation), LeRobot framework, FD SCServo Debug Qt
- Power Supply: 12V 5A DC
- Connection: USB-C to laptop (shows as /dev/ttyACM0)
- Robot: SO-101 6DOF robotic armTechnical:
- Project: SO-101 robotic arm teleoperation with LeRobot
- Software: phosphobot, LeRobot framework
- Hardware: 6x ST3215 30kg.cm, Waveshare Serial Bus Servo Driver Board
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04
