Chief Delphi - HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

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Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

We'll help out however we can when you arrive in KC. Things seem to be going smoothly with our robot, so our pit crew should be free to dig through our tools and spare parts to assist whenever possible. We are leaving school early to be there at 2:00 Friday when the doors open.

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Have you tried using a different port on the Digital Sidecar? Would a Jaguar work?

We have some really good electrical mentors on 1939. We'd be happy to help you out when you get to K.C. We hope you are able to make the trip!

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Blake (Post 1083613)

hopefully, someday soon we'll be experienced/seasoned enough to contribute advice ourselves... ;-)

--Michael Blake

Michael,
This experience will put you in a position to start. Let us know what you find.

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Blake (Post 1083553)

when we checked the voltage from the tip of the PWM, it was fluctuating every time.

We experienced a similar problem at WPI this year. The problem disappeared when we re-imaged the cRIO to V29, even though we weren't using CAN. We never made any further inquiries into the problem, so I can't verify the validity of that fix. Regardless, I would try making sure the firmware on the cRIO is properly imaged. It doesn't hurt.

Jack

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

sorry if i missread it, have you tried to move the slot on the Digital Sidcar?
it could be that you messed up the slot 5. if it still doesnt work maybe try to not use a Y and see if that fixes it. i dont see where the flakyness could come from..

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by baronep (Post 1083543)

I find myself needing to unplug and replug the PWM several times to get it to work. Also, make sure that the PWM is pushed in all the way and not resting on a pin that is out of alignment. All of these would cause the victor to not receive a signal from the cRIO and not work.

Hope you get it fixed,

Patrick

This was EXACTLY our problem... thanks so much for mentioning this!
Also I want to thank James Tonthat for coming down to help us as well!!

Thanks everyone for helping we really appreciate this... The robot is now working again. :)

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Blake (Post 1083547)

Everything seems to be pushed in correctly,...

When dealing with Victors and PWM cables, "seems to be" isn't good enough. :p Occasionally you need someone with years of experience to be able to tell that something literally doesn't feel right, and to apply the proper subtle touch to get the connector to seat properly.

That's the one thing about Victors I don't miss when using Jaguars instead.

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesTerm (Post 1083698)

L O L! I was thinking that was the issue! In reading the thread, I was just about to say something about this, based on the statement:

"The blinking light on the Victor doesn't change color or pattern when we ENABLE/DISABLE the robot, it blinks at the same rate."

******

The orange LED should stop blinking and remain SOLID ON when a Victor is enabled and neutral. When you said it kept blinking, that pointed directly to the PWM cable not being properly seated.

Sometimes you literally have to jiggle the crap out of the PWM cable in order for the connection to be true (sorry Al - sometimes you just have to get medieval on electrical components to get them to do your bidding) ;) .

Once the connection goes true, it tends to stay that way...unless the PWM cable wiggles loose. Once you know the PWM connection is good, HOT GLUE the PWM connector to the Victor housing to keep it in place - saves you a TON of headache later on!

3138 had this same problem this past build season when they called me kinda freaked out. They were about to throw their Victors out! They were not privy to the "Victor PWM cable shimmy".

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

***SORRY for the LATE posting here... after the Cow Town ThrowDown I started getting ill which led to an emergency hospitalization with some upcoming surgery to fix the situation... OF COURSE, I'm scheduling surgery _around_ the build-season... ;-)***

WELL... it turned out that the problem was proper insertion on the PWM connectors into the Victor sockets...

THANKS to James Tonthat/Texas Torque #1477 who was AWESOME with his last minute offer to drive down 90 minutes from Austin to San Antonio to help us troubleshoot the problem!!

Turns out you have to be VERY careful/precise with the insertion into the Victors... that's actually a skill you have to develop to get it _just_ right... ;-)

Re: HELP! Cow Town ThrowDown Partcipation in Jeopardy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Blake (Post 1089320)

I hope all goes well with your surgery. Make sure you don't overdo it.

I needed some minor surgery last winter. I scheduled it for between ship day (bag day) and our Week 1 competition - the day before, in fact. My doctor let me go, but wouldn't let me drive to the event or do any lifting. I was still bleeding, but it all worked out. Try not to do anything stupid like that.