Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Hi CD,

Our team is running into an interesting issue. Our compressor is somehow able to run even when our robot is disabled.

We think that something we're doing is uncovering a bug in the FRC framework, but we don't really know.

We're in match #1 tommorrow and if we don't fix this issue we have to go out without a compressor. We can score auton but then we will run out of air.

Any ideas, CD?

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

This is usually due to a faulty digital sidecar. Try opening it up and cleaning out any metal shavings, try replacing it if that doesn't fix the problem.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Absolutely sure that it is wired up correctly?

Try to control it programmatically, if you can't make it turn on and off with a button push in tele-op, then the framework can't either.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Yeah We had the exact problem last week man. It turned out to be the Crio. I would first check the relay ports on the SPIKE and change out the SPIKE if needed. I hope this helps:)

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Can you throw some more air tanks on for a quick fix?

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

We had this same issue as well and it did turn out to be the digital sidecar.

Talk to the CSA at your event and try to get a loaner digital sidecar (assuming you don't have a spare).

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

What is a CSA?
I can't figure out the acronym.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Control System Advisor. Usually found wearing an orange hat that says "Control System Advisor" and a volunteer shirt and badge, probably helping some team that is having control system problems. (Or standing around to help out the FTA and FTAA, if no teams are having issues.)

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Thanks all,

We did our own research last night and it turns out that there is a certain line on the digital sidecar that controls the enable/disable to relays 1-4. We're going to see if we can switch to 5 and 6 (we have 2 relays) for the first match and failing that we will swap the sidecar. Luckily, we already had to swap a sidecar yesterday to fix an electronics isolation issue so everything is really well labeled.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

I was at the MI Kettering District event and talked to their CSA, Andrew from NI. He showed me the tool NI has implemented for contacting the CSA's at your event. It is a web based tool that can be used from any smartphone. They may also have a laptop setup at Pit Admin for submitting requests.

http://www.NIParkway.com

He is hoping that more teams will use this tool to make requests and the CSA's will use it to document what was done to solve the issue. This will help identify any trends and possible solutions.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Thanks for the information

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Sorry that OP didn't deliver, was at regional.

Was a faulty DSC. We managed to switch in a new one before our first match friday!

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

At San Diego we had this set up on a laptop in the Inspection area. This way Inspectors could refer a team to a CSA very easily and faster than we could usually track them down. Just enter your team number and a brief description of the problem and a CSA would show up at your Pit, usually within 20 minutes or so.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Team 3940 ran into this problem on our practice robot here in our shop today. We replaced the Digital Side Car to solve this issue. Upon inspection of the faulty DSC, we found a large amount of shavings and metal dust inside the case.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

Without swapping out the whole DSC, you should try moving to another channel, or just cleaning out the digital IO rail.

The reason the compressor is running is because the digital IO pressure switch is being shorted to ground.

Also this is dependant upon where you start your compressor code from. If you start the compressor call in robot init, it has the potential to run during disabled.

If you start the code somewhere else, it won't run in disabled, unless you ran through that portion of the code first.

We typically only start our compressor in telopInit (to avoid it running during auto and just being an extra electrical load we don't want. (We run the robot in queue to pre-charge our air system)).

Hope this helps,
Kevin

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

This is not exactly true.

All of the outputs (PWM and Relay) are disabled in hardware when the robot is disabled. Even if you try to set them (there's no harm in setting them continuously while disabled), they will not be set because of the disable circuit.

However, there are some cases where the buffers for the relay outputs can fail in such a way that they ignore the disable circuit but otherwise work fine.

Running code while disabled can also help with troubleshooting code, as you can look at what it is trying to do without letting it do it.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

I've seen this problem on and off for several years. For us, it was never consistent. Maybe once every 50-100 cycles the compressor would kick on as soon at the robot was turned on. All we would have to do is cycle the robot again and it would function as intended. I have seen this happen at least on time in the past 5 seasons. Is your situation repeatable?

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

While inspecting at the Sacramento regional, I came across a team that had this issue, or one similar to it.

Their compressor would run whenever the robot was powered on. They said "It has always done that.", which unnerved me a bit.:o

Long story short, they had the Spike relay for the compressor plugged into a PWM port with the jumper in place for use with a servo.
The jumper provided +6vdc to the center wire, thus telling the Spike to go into forward at all times.

So, check the wiring.

Re: Labview disabled compressor runs *AT REGIONAL IN MATCH 1 TOMMOROW*
 

This is what we think happened.