Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

hey everyone, 3 days ago we had all of our bench testing done and were fiddling with the camera, etc. everything on the electrical system was working fine. yesterday night, we re-wired the system to put on our robot, and the digital sidecar is not working. first, the 5v led would turn off when we pressed the enable switch. after relaoding fresh default software that porblem seems to have gone away. the only problem now is that we have no 6v power (and led) and the BAT led wont turn on. i have no idea what to do...

PS
vacuumed everything, tried swapping all of the parts, nothing seems to work....

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

The LED pattern (5V on, 6V and battery off) indicates that you are not getting power from the battery to the DSC. Check your breaker and your wiring. Most common issue to cause this is grabbing the insulation instead of the copper in one of the wago connectors.

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

I can almost guarantee that you didn't strip enough insulation off of the wire that's inserted in the PD's WAGO. You aren't getting power to the DSC. Remove the power cable from the PD, strip off a bit more insulation and re-WAGO.

A word of warning - if the 37-pin cable that connects the DSC to the cRIO is present and the DSC has no power (as is probably your case), the 5V LED on the DSC will be on but somewhat faint and the 6V and 12V LEDs will be off. In this example, the cRIO is generating TTL/CMOS level digital outputs that partially providing power on the DSC's 5V rail. All 3 power LEDs need to be fully on (5V, 6V and 12V).

Russ

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

thanks guys. it was the connection and tbad stripping job.

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

I assume that the LED pattern:


5V = ON
6V = ON, but dimmer than 5V
12V = OFF

would also most likely be caused by a bad WAGO connection?

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

It could also be a short circuit on the 6V supply, but I would start with the WAGO.

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

Remember that the manufacturer's spec is to strip about 1/2" to insure that there sufficient wire to grab inside the contact area and still prevent the insulation from entering the contact area. If you cannot see a little copper when looking into the contact after wire insertion, you did not strip enough. If copper is extending beyond the walls of the terminal after insertion, you didn't insert the wire far enough or you stripped off too much insulation.

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

When we opened up our sidecar and examined the circuit board, the c6 capacitor was not soldered on both pads. Has anyone else found this problem?

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

I should add that 2 of our 3 sidecars have this defect.

Re: Digital Sidecar Not Working
 

That's a known defect that shouldn't cause any issues since the board is conformally coated. I believe this was covered in an early update to teams.

Russ