Dig-Sidecar only one output at a time
 

Hi everyone,

We're having problems controlling two motors at the same time. I have two motors connected to Victor888 controllers connected to PWM outputs #1 and 2 on the digital sidecar. I send commands to run both motors at the same time at the same rate, but only the 1st motor runs (port 1 on the sidecar). The 2nd motor doesn't run and there is no voltage drop across the terminal of the motor.

NOW, if I pull the wire out of port 1 of the sidecar and run the program again, the 2nd motor works! I've tried using two different ports (#4 and #6) and the same problem occurs. It certainly seems that only 1 PWM port at a time can be used on the digital sidecar.

Here's 2 different versions of my Java code that produce the same problem:

-------------------------------------------------
Victor m1 = new Victor(1);
Victor m2 = new Victor(2);

In autonomous:
m1.set(0.5);
m2.set(0.5);
Timer.delay(2.0);
m1.set(0.0);
m2.set(0.0);
--------------------------------------------------
Other version:

RobotDrive chassis = new RobotDrive(1,2);

In autonomous:
chassis.setSafetyEnabled(false);
chassis.drive(0.5, 0.5);
Timer.delay(2.0);
chassis.drive(0.0, 0.0);
--------------------------------------------------
Thanks in advance for any help.

BD Team 5221

Re: Dig-Sidecar only one output at a time
 

Make sure you have the sidecar powered with 12 V. The ribbon cable is enough to power it no load, but it drops out as you start adding outputs.