Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

We have a problem with the digital sidecar and jaguar on our robot. The first problems is that one of our jaguars does not light up, and makes a clacking noise, but the fan still runs. I am guessing it is shorted, but there was never any indication like smoke, a spark, etc. I guess we will have to use one of our victors instead if we cant get it fixed.

Our second problem is with our digital sidecar not working. It was working for the past 6 weeks, but all the sudden, today it stopped working, and none of or PWM outputs were working, and our digital inputs were sending incorrect values. We have the Signal Light connected, but it does not light up at all. I unplugged the Signal Light, but the RSL Led on the Sidecar does not light up either. Also, the 5v light does not light up. I am guessing from my searching that there is either a short in the sidecar, or that the cable from the CRIO is not connected securely. What else could be wrong? Hopefully I can clean out the sidecar and it will work, but if need we could buy another one and replace it on Thursday before the competition.

Thanks,
Da Johnny Boy

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

I've seen this situation, and you're probably right: It's shorted. The clicking is coming from the breaker, most likely. The Jaguar I saw it on was running fine, then suddenly, no light, no motion out of that motor, and a rapid clicking from the 40A snap-action breaker it was connected to.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

Make sure your ribbon cable that runs from the cRio to the digital sidecar is properly built. Ours was not. There are instructions on the First website at the following link: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...control-system Reference "Information on how to fix the DB37 cable provided in your Kit."

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

This happened to use when someone accidentally wired a jag backward. The clicking noise is coming from the breaker on the Power Distribution Board. You should see a red light on the side of the PDB too next to the port where the jag is.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

We already had to fix the cable about 6 weeks ago. The robot has been running fine for the last 6 weeks. I will check that the jag is not shorted. The only weird thing is that the noise is coming directly from the jaguar, not the breaker.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

This should absolutely not happen. Red lights on the sides of the PDB will light up if and only if the terminal blocks are connected to something while the connection is unfused.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

idk, they lit up for us when we had a fuse in but wired backward.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

When a circuit breaker opens, that's just like not having one installed. The red light will indeed come on.

I'm reasonably certain that the red PDB lights were designed specifically to indicate tripped breakers.

Re: Rookie Team Control System Problem
 

Well, I opened up the digital sidecar and jaguar and there were a couple specks of metal in the sidecar. I do not know what is wrong with the jaguar, I tried powering from another power source, but it just makes a mysterious clicking noise. When there is power on the jaguar and pressing the rest button, the red light will flicker on for a fraction of a second.

After this, we powered up the robot and ran it for a while. We turned it off while we did some other work, and when we turned it back on, one jaguar would always be solid orange and would not work, and the other would slowly flash red. We finally got them to work again by opening them up, where it appeared that there were no metal in, and plugging them back in and resetting them.

What should we do about the broken jaguar? Do a RMA through TI?