Digital Sidecar problem
 

Our digital sidecar doesn't always work. I'll download code, and it may or may not work. I then have to restart the system and try again. When it doesn't work, it gets power and appears to be functioning, but the jaguars flash and spikes and DIO's don't work. The analog sensor in the analog breakout still works, however. The DSC has all lights lit up. RSL is solid.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Re: Digital Sidecar problem
 

Sounds like your 37 pin cable to the digital sidecar might be loose or faulty.

Have you tried securing the cable or swapping the cable ?

Re: Digital Sidecar problem
 

Sounds like a software issue we had. If you're in LabVIEW anyway. Something, somewhere got messed up and we couldn't get a signal out, even though it was wired properly and all. Ended up just migrating the code to a new project, where it worked fine. Took all of 5 minutes. Might work.

Re: Digital Sidecar problem
 

This resembles a issue we had earlier in the year does the sidecar get hot? Do the lights turn on? If yes to the first question you have fried it, take it apart to confirm (the lights may still turn on). If the lights don't turn on then check the wires and the cable.

Re: Digital Sidecar problem
 

I forgot about this, it fixed itself though... thanks anyway. :) I have no idea with the electronics this year sometimes. They just stop working for no apparent reason, and they fix themselves... It's weird.

Re: Digital Sidecar problem
 

There are a lot of protection methods in the electronics this year that have the "It doesn't work but at least it isn't broken" feature.

For example, all of the power supplies will shut down if they are shorted out, rather than roast themselves. I've heard of several "incidents" where a dynamic short on the DSC's 5V rail will sporadically kill the motors.

When a supply goes into this fail safe it doesn't push enough current to smoke things, so it looks perfectly fine - and also perfectly broken. Hopefully the LEDs help with this.

Worse, some are protected by thermal devices, so it will take 5-15 seconds to "heal".

Digital Sidecar problem
 

Will you be investing in in an scx digital system bearing in mind you will probably have to buy new cars track and accesorys?