Jaguar Discontinued?

[RyanN]

I'm looking up information for a presentation I'm going to give tomorrow, and noticed that the MDL-BDC24 is now obsolete.

http://www.ti.com/tool/mdl-bdc24

Also, this isn't the website I'm used to for the Jaguar. It's completely redesigned, and does not mention anything about the old gray Jaguar.

Hopefully I'm wrong about this.

[Ether]

I'm looking up information for a presentation I'm going to give tomorrow, and noticed that the MDL-BDC24 is now obsolete.

http://www.ti.com/tool/mdl-bdc24

Also, this isn't the website I'm used to for the Jaguar. It's completely redesigned, and does not mention anything about the old gray Jaguar.

Hopefully I'm wrong about this.

Check over at VEX Robotics.

[F22Rapture]

It was discontinued by Texas Instruments, but they passed along the production rights to IFI who will continue producing it along with the Victor.

TI will (I believe) continue providing support for the Jaguar, however they will not be producing new ones. That responsibility is now IFI's.

[Ricky Q.]

VEX Robotics is now producing and supporting the Jaguar Motor Controller.

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/motor-controllers/217-3367.html

Best,
Ricky

[RyanN]

Okay... thanks everyone!

[Saberbot]

According to This Document (http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/3120/m/8559/l/88414-2013-frc-software-component-overview#!prettyPhoto) BDC COM will be part of the encrypted labview update that will be uploaded to NI's Website here (http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2262) on Wednesday.

[RyanN]

According to This Document (http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/3120/m/8559/l/88414-2013-frc-software-component-overview#!prettyPhoto) BDC COM will be part of the encrypted labview update that will be uploaded to NI's Website here (http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2262) on Wednesday.


Good news! It was too hard to search for, and we couldn't download the utility at the school due to their firewall.

[Kusha]

So we have to download Labview for BDC COM? If so :(, I hate downloading Labview.

[Joe Ross]

Good news! It was too hard to search for, and we couldn't download the utility at the school due to their firewall.

BDC-COMM was a part of the utilities download last year, and I think possibly earlier then that.

[Ricky Q.]

BDC-COMM and the latest Jaguar firmware is now up on our Jaguar page as well:

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/motor-controllers/217-3367.html

Best,
Ricky

[Racer26]

Be aware that you should probably be considering the two new players in the Speed Controller market for FRC, the Victor 888 (also by IFI), and the Talon (by Cross The Road Electronics). Both provide similar performance to the Jags (but no CAN), at a ~$55 price point, in the footprint of a Victor 884.

EDIT: Talon is also configured with a heatsink and no fan by default, and as such is a more-or-less sealed case. Should be FAR less susceptible to swarf letting the magic smoke out.

[s1900ahon]

It was discontinued by Texas Instruments, but they passed along the production rights to IFI who will continue producing it along with the Victor.

Close. TI donated the Jaguar design to FIRST, who put out a proposal to their suppliers, and they chose IFI to manufacture the Jaguar.

Note that Jaguar was always an openly published design; starting back with Luminary Micro's original design. The only thing that was held back was a small quantity of code for CAN authentication when that was made legal.

As RickyQ mentioned, IFI now supports the Jaguar.

As far as BDC-COMM is concerned, you can still download it separately from TI (for now) here (http://www.ti.com/jaguar). A version from IFI (with IFI logos and such) probably will available from them shortly (I am not speaking on behalf of IFI and don't know their specific plans). Note that you only need BDC-COMM to either a) upgrade the firmware, b) configure the CANID of a Jaguar (for CAN use), or c) experiment with PID settings if using one of the closed-loop control modes.

-Scott