Emergency Help Needed on Main Board and Camera
 

Note: this is an blurb of the e-mail sent to IFI.

Next, when we turn on the robot, with the default cmucode, the terminal windo just says >ifi when reset/turned on and nothing else; even with debugging mode turned on in the code. Kevin Watson, who wrote the default code, states in his FAQ that if nothing is returned, the main board is bad. Is this our case, or are we doing something wrong with the camera. We have all the connections (ttl, servos, power, etc.) made properly and the code is default, and the servos seem to not be getting any power, since the rotate freely(thus the need for the diagrams to trace where power is lost).

Thanks.

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

make sure you have the OI connected to it either via tether or radio.

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

If the servos are turning freely, they are probably not connected to the RC at all (if they are connected to the right PWMs, they should be trying to track the target. If they were connected to an unused PWM output, the combination of power and a neutral - 127 - signal wouldn't allow them to be easily turned.)

We get the symptoms you describe (nothing pops up at the terminal) when the battery is dead, or when the camera has been turned on after the robot. A fresh backup battery in the first case or a reset in the second case should do it.

If that doesn't help, then you probably have a bigger problem.

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

Double Check your connections ;)

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

All-together you should have 4 PWM type wires coming off the "camera mount" to the controller.

-2 from the servos to pwm01 pwm02
-1 TTL port (w/ TTL device) to camera
-1 power from a PWM output to camera

Are the lights on the camera at least on?

MOST IMPORTANT... BACKUP battery!

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

Free-turning servos can indicate no power getting from the backup battery to the pwm port pins, but they are also a symptom of the RC being disabled. That'll happen automatically if there's no communication with the OI. Make sure you have either a red tether cable between the OI and the RC or a pair of functioning radio modems connected. If you're using a competition port dongle, make sure it's not disabling the robot (the yellow light on the OI should be off).

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

I have triple checked our connections ;)
I was thinking that the backup battery might be the problem, so I will change it tommorow.
No, the radio was not plugged in, so we will try that manana tambien.
Thanks everybody
for the awesome help :)

Re: EMERGENCY HELP NEEDED ON MAIN BOARD AND CAMERA
 

we were having that problem. do you have a dongle plugged in to initiate autonomous.

Re: Emergency Help Needed on Main Board and Camera
 

when that happened to us, we recharged the battery. Try that

Re: Emergency Help Needed on Main Board and Camera
 

It was the lack of Operator Interface :) ... now to just make it to not see flourescent lights.