Quote:
Originally Posted by aklego
One of the cool things about samantha is that teams can no longer goof and start the match with their power switch off. Powering samantha off a third battery could reintroduce that issue. That said, it would be pretty simple to put a relay in the circuit and have both the samantha battery and the main 12V battery controlled by the existing power switch. Or, perhaps even easier, replace the existing SPST switch with a DPST switch hooked to two batteries.
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Although you can't start the match with the power switch off, there's still the problem if your Motor controller controller cables are unplugged.
Now that teams are relying on the Samantha module to report "no power", they sometimes forget to check the NXT screen for 12V levels. The NXT reads the 12V level through the motor controller, the Samantha does it via it's own power cable.
We had an instance where the FCS said everything was OK, but nothing moved. After the match we found that the NXT was reading 0V for the battery..... The motor controller cable had become unplugged. D'OH!
Phil.
__________________
Phil Malone
Garrett Engineering And Robotics Society (GEARS) founder.
http://www.GEARSinc.org
FRC1629 Mentor, FTC2818 Coach, FTC4240 Mentor, FLL NeXTGEN Mentor