Victor 884 Problems
 

I just wanted to know if anyone else has had problems with their victor 884 motor control modules. We had 3 of them go bad (at least we think), but we think that it is very strange that 3 would all be bad. These are brand new from IFI, and we were wondering if maybe they had a bad batch.

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

Triple check your wiring.

Make sure the battery supply side goes in to V+ and V-. Get the polarity right.

Make sure the battery side isn't going into the M+ and M- or it will go kapooie !!

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

Also make sure the PWM's are fully seated.

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

How exactly did they go bad? Magic Smoke? Amber light blinking? No lights at all?

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

Also be careful when cutting/drilling around a Victor. If you get metal shavings inside, you can kill it pretty easily. Always cover up your electronics before working on the robot, and use a vacuum to clean up afterwards.

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

We havent had any problems with ours except loosing some screws. Double check that your PWM's are in the right way (Red to Red, black to black, white to white). That can make a big difference!

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

They are wired properly and the PWM cables are seated properly (as we all know they can com out). I directly replaced them with others that we had and they worked fine. When we plug the 884s in question in and turn on the bot we get the flashing no connection light. If we switch it to a known good one everything works fine. We are pretty sure that they are bad and it is not a wiring problem.

Anthony
Team 135
Lead Wiring/Controls

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

I guess you could contact FIRST and ask about it.

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

Forgive the nagging, but are you absolutely certain the cables are inserted properly? There's a little nub of plastic in a new Victor's connector slot which often makes it difficult to plug the cables in fully unless you know exactly how to do it. Look carefully at how much of the connector is sticking out of the slot, and compare it to one that is working. You might find that it can go in another couple of millimeters.

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

Yeah, the PWM connector on the Victors are difficult to use. You should feel it "slide" into the connector is its lined up properly. Sometimes gently rocking, shaking, twist or jiggling the cable connector inside the victor connector can make it line up, and you will feel it slide down. Also, make sure your pins are straight on the end of the cable.

It is possible that the victors are bad, or that at one point were hooked up backwards like Ed suggested (in which case, they are most certainly broken.) Contact IFI, and see what they say. They might have you send them back, and they'll charge a repair fee (they did that for us with the OI a few years back, after I boxed it by reversing the competition port pins :rolleyes: ... They charged about half retail price for repair of the unit.)

Jacob

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

I don't mind the nagging, but yes we have checked the PWMs many times and that is not it. I delegated someone else to do part of the wiring and they may have hooked one up backward and I would have not noticed, and after turning on the bot they may have been fried.:ahh: There is no way to tell now if that was the problem since they were replaced very quickly after not working. I have had multiple people look at the PWMs and check whether they were fully inserted and everyone seems to think that they are. I know that that is often a problem that the PWM wires come out so that was the first thing that I checked. Thanks for the heads up on IFI being able to fix them instead of just buying new ones. I will be calling IFI later today.

Thanks a ton

Anthony
Team 135
Lead Controls/Wiring

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

hmmm. see that right there "the delegated" part may be your electrical demon itself. Unless you yourself made sure the wires were not incorrectly connected at one time, you'll be unable to determine if the 884s are faulty from the factory or are damaged now due to an accident......... As for us, one year we made sure all the connections were ok, and shrink wrapped, all color coded correctly. We forgot to ohm out the connections, and a small piece of shaving fried our controller, silly us.....

I personally learn by my own mistakes, thats why i'm not a pilot...

Re: Victor 884 Problems
 

All true BUT we've all forgotten some of the OTHER possibilities... like ESD.
You may have someone on the team that carries a HUGE charge... ( Maybe rubs the Victor on his polyester jacket before installing for good luck...don't laugh) That being said... three failures is VERY unlikely to be ESD. Still it's possible if they were all together somewhere ...possibly the factory...and all received some kind of charge.
Since you are so snake bit, I suggest following all the safety guidelines for handling electronics just to eliminate the really odd possibilities... (AND find that guy carrying the huge charge and tie him to a copper ground rod!)

Steve