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View Full Version : cRIO's Ethernet Port Randomly Disconnecting?

TD912
13-01-2010, 13:55
We took apart all the electronics from our 2009 robot (which still works fine), and re-wired everything up to a bare chassis with nothing but 2 motors and camera for testing the new Classmate PC and related software.

However, we can't get the Classmate or any other computer to connect to the cRIO. It doesn't lose power, but ethernet connection seems to randomly turn on and off every few seconds. The LEDs on the ethernet port turn off for a second when this happens.

We're 99.9% sure we wired everything correctly. We already tried different cables and computers. We tried a direct wired tether from the PC to the cRIO. We made sure we were using a freshly recharged battery. The cRIO Reset/Format tool does not function as we can't establish a connection long enough to reset it.

Anybody know what's going on, or how to fix it?
TD912
14-01-2010, 00:08
Turned out somehow the power distribution board somehow got damaged after falling off a table and was not sending sufficent amounts of power to the cRIO for some reason. Luckily, we got a another one in the KoP so we wired that up and everything seems to work fine now.

I'll leave this post up in case someone else happens to stumble upon this problem also.
Al Skierkiewicz
16-01-2010, 21:30
Chris,
If the PD is from 2009, there is a known problem with a surface mount cap too near the edge of the board. If you dropped it, you may have dislodged the cap and it is now shorting something inside the PD. Try taking the cover off and see if something is loose or floating around inside.
Joe Ross
16-01-2010, 22:42
If the PD is from 2009, there is a known problem with a surface mount cap too near the edge of the board. If you dropped it, you may have dislodged the cap and it is now shorting something inside the PD. Try taking the cover off and see if something is loose or floating around inside.

I wasn't aware of a problem with the Power Distribution board. There was a problem with the Digital Sidecar, C6 (http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11713). Do you have more information about the PD problem?
Bharat Nain
17-01-2010, 00:17
Chris,
If the PD is from 2009, there is a known problem with a surface mount cap too near the edge of the board. If you dropped it, you may have dislodged the cap and it is now shorting something inside the PD. Try taking the cover off and see if something is loose or floating around inside.

Do you know if this problem has been resolved in the 2010 version?
Al Skierkiewicz
17-01-2010, 09:30
I know that there was some work being done at the end of the season. Erik Van Wyk would be the best to ask.