[SOLVED] BrickPi 3: will it damage the hardware if the wrong port is used?

[weilin1990]

I noticed that there is no operation to enable/disable a motor port in the BrickPi 3 software. But it seems a control variable BrickPi.MotorEnable is used, for example in old releases of BrickPi.

So I am wondering with BrickPi 3, if I interface with a disconnected port, say by calling the Python method get_motor_status(PORT_A) or even set_motor_dps(PORT_A, 100) with no motor on port A at all, will it damage any of the hardware?

Haven’t tried, just worrying so post my question here.

[Matt]

You won’t damage the BrickPi3 by not having a motor connected when you apply power to a motor port.

On the older BrickPi, BrickPi.MotorEnable was used to power/float the motor. With BrickPi3 you can set_motor_power to -128 to float the motor.

Don’t connect sensors to the motor ports, and don’t connect motors to the sensor ports.