Bench Test Victor Problem

[finman]

my team and i have carefully followed the instructions that came with the control system for a bench test. when we follow the directions and power it up, everything seems to be working correctly, except the victors are driving the motors, and begin to spark. we have double checked all of our connections and they seem to be correct. are we using bad victors? are the victors supposed to drive the motors when recieving no pwm signal at all? any other reason that we would be having this problem?

[EricVanWyk]

Victors and Jaguars use different settings for their PWM signals - The Jaguars receive updates faster and with better resolution. A side effect of this is that driving a speed controller with the wrong settings can result in odd behavior. I can't remember which the bench top is set for, but I'd look there first.

What is sparking? DC brushed motors will often spark at their brushes, inside their case. What are you seeing?

[martin417]

Be sure you have the latest version of the benchtop test procedures. They have changed. The latest version uses Jaguars, not Victors.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Chris,
The Victors will self destruct if you connect the power supply to the output terminals and the motor to the input terminals. A side effect of this mode is fireworks as the power FETs blow open and short. The electrical equivalent of measure twice cut once is check your wiring twice then apply power.

[finman]

thanks guys,
despite having checked my wiring job several times, in the process of moving the components from one board to another, a teamate of mine reversed the victors. he assured me multiple times that it was correct, but *sigh* there go two victors.

[Jim E]

Sorry to read of your loss. In the future, implement a checklist where 2 people have to sign off ( 4 eyes are better than 2- 8 with glasses!) before power is applied. These accidents can happen to the most experienced teams. Chualk on up to experience and go easy on the mistaken error.