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-   -   Problem with our Victor? (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63337)

nedpirates 05-02-2008 17:49

Problem with our Victor?
 
1 Attachment(s)
Hi,

we're a new team, and our speed controller seems to be acting up and not working right. We're wondering if anybody might know why, take a look at the picture.

Thank you,
your help is much appreciated.

The Ned Pirates

RyanN 05-02-2008 18:23

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
1 Attachment(s)
I circled all the problems I could find in red...
First, check your wiring (make sure there are wires connected)
Second, your PWM cable is not fully inserted (it actually appears that it is missing)
Third, you may have burned all the FETs because your fan is missing.

That's about all I could find.
Except the fact that it is cut in half...

Drwurm 05-02-2008 18:29

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Dead battery idiot.

nedpirates 05-02-2008 18:47

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Update:

we forgot to mention this, but we took a look inside the capacitor, and there appears to be misshapen, twisted, and melted metal. Also, it wiggles around on the circuit board quite a bit.

We tried hooking up a PWM cable and the battery, but no go. It's still dead.

We're still investigating the issue about the fan.

Thanks for the help so far!

Vikesrock 05-02-2008 18:49

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
This has to be one of the strangest threads I have ever read :confused:

AdamHeard 05-02-2008 18:57

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I suspect a bandsaw was the culprit....

And on a somewhat related note, I have seen dog training clickers from petco that sound EXACTLY like a breaker tripping.... May have used it last year.....

DonRotolo 05-02-2008 19:22

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I cannot be absolutely certain, but I think the Victor may be leaking. With it powered up, check for escaping electrons. If you find any, locate the leak and plug it, then top up the magic smoke if necessary.

ALIBI 05-02-2008 19:26

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I am not positive, but I believe that may be an illegal modification of an electrical component. You may want to Q & A the GDC before you use a Victor with the modifications you have made. (NO DON'T REALLY CONTACT THE GDC)

Mike Hendricks 06-02-2008 02:54

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Looks like you got a defective victor .. as long as the warranty stickers aren't broken .. IFI should replace it :rolleyes:

laultima 06-02-2008 03:36

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I believe this part of the Victor is missing

Contact IFI for replacement magic smoke

Drwurm 06-02-2008 03:44

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You could contact IFI now, or you could simply go up to spare parts when you get to your first regional.

Al Skierkiewicz 06-02-2008 07:54

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You know, I have seen thousands of Victors over the years and hundreds of damaged ones. I have seen every conceivable defect, power hooked up backwards, power to the output, metal shavings, contact with a wayward robot arm, even a broken battery cable contacting the FETs, but I have never, ever, seen this before.

cardinalman86 06-02-2008 08:08

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I think the problem exists between the electronics board and the chair/stool. But who knows, maybe even then it doesn't exist.

nedpirates 06-02-2008 18:17

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
4 Attachment(s)
Thank you all for your gracious help! We really do appreciate it.

We've been investigating the issues you've mentioned, and we came to the conclusion that there wasn't in fact a fan on top, so we mounted one on it. (See pic 1.) We also thought that it wasn't getting enough energy, and since gold fish give us energy, we put some on there as well. There also is a battery.

However, it still didn't work. We thought it might be dehydrated, so we added some water. (Pic 2.)

It STILL doesn't work. We suddenly realized that the electrons must be leaking out, so we got some masking tape and masked it all up. Since the fan wasn't working on top, we did a counter-top configuration, hoping that would work. (pic 3.)

We realized that the fan was pointed in the wrong direction, so we rewired our configuration so that the fan pointed towards the electronics. We also forgot water in picture 3, so we poured some on the counter so that we would get good conductivity.

Unfortunately, we still have 0 workage (at least in joules). We are wondering if anybody has any ideas, because we're up to here in it, you believe me.

Thank you,
The Ned Pirates

P.S., does anybody know where we can get any magic smoke? IFI is on backorder right now, and so is Papa John's. Thanks!

RyanN 06-02-2008 18:33

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You may want to get the trunk monkeys working on this issue. Every car has a trunk monkey, and they can usually fix anything. I still believe the issue resides in a bad connection... Did you try to solder the fan to the victor? It's hard to solder plastic to plastic, but it can be done! Doing this will also make some magic smoke, so gather it in a jar!

Al Skierkiewicz 06-02-2008 18:36

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You know, I think Don Rotolo is right, I can see some electrons leaking out in one of the pictures. What you need to do is go find all the electrons that dripped out and return them to the module. You might have to go to a local electron supply depot to get enough to completely fill the device. Then you will need some Acme Electronik Leak Sealer with testing dye. Use according to the labeled directions and certainly wait the required length of time for it to cure. I believe it may need a vacuum of at least 40 inches of mercury for the curing process. Then you will need a variable voltage source, and starting at a very low voltage (1x10^-10 volts) and slowly advance the power supply while watching for the tell tale electron leak to occur. Most repair stations will perform this in a photographic room with the lights off. If all the electrons leave at once then I am afraid this device may be impossible to repair. Give it a good funeral and bury in the back yard along side Fluffy, the faithful goldfish from your youth.

Manoel 06-02-2008 18:38

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Your Victors came with the wrong topology... They are supposed to work in an H-bridge, yours had a short "I-"bridge. Call IFI and claim DOA! :p

Mr. Freeman 07-02-2008 01:28

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You have too much whitespace between the sections of the victor. Remove it and apply duct tape (not masking tape) to seal it.

Also, the Coriolis effect may be causing the electrons to orbit the central capacitor in the wrong direction. Did you obtain this particular speed controller from the southern hemisphere?

dtengineering 07-02-2008 01:57

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
There is no problem at all with this Victor. It is simply undergoing mitosis. Wait a few days and you should have two nice new Victors ready to go. Isn't that how IFI does it?

If you simply can't wait that long, I suggest you use the bandsaw to induce mitosis in your RC, so that it is at a similar state of division and better able to communicate with the speed controller.

Jason

GaryVoshol 07-02-2008 08:14

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Would zipties help?

Matt C 07-02-2008 09:33

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I don't see how this could be a hardware problem, must be a software problem. :confused:

EricVanWyk 07-02-2008 10:27

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt C (Post 693827)
I don't see how this could be a hardware problem, must be a software problem. :confused:

It looks like you have configured your Victors for a Beowulf Cluster approach. Be sure that you load an OS that supports it.

nedpirates 07-02-2008 18:35

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Hey all,

Thanks a ton for the advice, especially the mitosis bit. That led us to believe that you might be on to something there so we called in a specialist (an electronics biologist who knows about Victor reproduction). Turns out that it's actually undergoing meiosis so we're going to try to splice them by soldering them together. We calculated the % yield of majic smoke (we checked the spelling on that and it's actually "majic") and we're coming up about 12 cc short of the needed amounts. So we still need more of that (IFI is back ordered until 2009 and majicsmoke.com doesn't carry the old stuff anymore. Does overstock.com have it?).

We also attached some magnets to get the electrons to orbit the right way and installed Redhat because it supports the Beowulf Cluster configuration emulator but every time we try to tape it back together it flanks the adhesive and massacres it before it even touches the Victor (can you set the aggressive setting to "passive" or anything?), oh yeah, it also killed all our trunk monkeys and they smell really bad.

Hope you guys have some ideas because we're helpless without this speed controller.

Thanks,
The Ned Pirates

Al Skierkiewicz 08-02-2008 07:32

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
I have tons of old Majic Smoke here, some with date codes that go back into the sixties. However, I have no method of acuumulating the smoke, nor a method of measuring out 12 cc. I would assume you would want more than the minimum in case some leaks out during transfer. However, I cannot guarantee which region the smoke was injected from. Do you have a particular vintage of smoke you are looking for? White or Black or a blend perhaps? Tight curling smoke or straight line smoke? Please advise, awaiting your (cough, cough, there goes another one!) reply.

kjhobin 08-02-2008 16:02

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Freeman (Post 693742)
You have too much whitespace between the sections of the victor. Remove it and apply duct tape (not masking tape) to seal it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt C (Post 693827)
I don't see how this could be a hardware problem, must be a software problem. :confused:

It can't be a software problem, because C ignores white space!

Also, the majic smoke must be blue! Its always blue majic smoke!

Al Skierkiewicz 08-02-2008 22:38

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by kjhobin (Post 694733)
Also, the majic smoke must be blue! Its always blue majic smoke!

Well then, I can't help you there. All my smoke comes from the days before "living color".

R.C. 11-02-2008 23:30

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
nice job

wilsonmw04 18-02-2008 00:33

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
This thread gets an "A+" From a high school physics teacher! It's what i've needed after 6 long weeks of building!

Now about the "problem"... All our Victors looked that way when we pulled them out of the box 6 weeks ago. They didn't work for us either. After much thought and observation we deduced that the spin on our electrons were backwards. In order to compensate for this, simple replace the terminal posts with left handed screws and it will work perfectly!

PS: that whole mitosis stuff is a bunch of garbage anyway. Those darned Biologist think they are "real" scientist when they only practice applied chemistry and everyone knows that chemistry is really applied Physics. ;) trust me on the this: change the screws!

seg9585 19-02-2008 19:11

Re: Problem with our Victor?
 
You should try applying anti-matter to the Victor's surface. That should give you enough pure energy to run your CIMS for the entire competition. Just make sure you don't wire all your CIMS to this one Victor, that's against the rules!


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