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Unread 27-03-2011, 13:36
goldenglove002 goldenglove002 is offline
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AKA: Alex Epstein
FRC #1311 (Kell Robotics)
Team Role: College Student
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Posts: 54
goldenglove002 is a jewel in the roughgoldenglove002 is a jewel in the roughgoldenglove002 is a jewel in the rough
Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*

Quote:
Originally Posted by DonRotolo View Post
Can you tell us about the problem you were seeing and what the cause was?
It's an issue we'd been having since about halfway through the Peachtree regional where the left side of our drive train would go out abruptly on the field. Every time we brought it back into the pits and onto the practice field to test it we would have no problems.

We started with the Power Distribution board and found that some FOD had found it's way inside of it. Replaced it. 2nd board wouldn't supply power to the CRio. Replaced it again. We also suspected damage to the digital sidecar and replaced that. With the robot stripped down to nothing but the drive and control system we were able to get it working before packing it into the crate for Palmetto.

After re-assembling the robot and getting out to practice on Thursday, we realized the same problem was occurring. Suspected a bad jaguar but every test we did in the pit showed no issues with any of them. Decided to start overhauling the wiring of the PWM's and power to the CIM's. Still nothing. Re-wrote code. Nothing. Swapped CIM motors. Started getting desperate. Swapped CRios. Nothing. Just completely baffled.

After some more testing in the pit we finally noticed the signal light wasn't changing on one of the jaguars. Changed it. Figured that the jaguar had been going bad all along and was just evading telling us at all the wrong times. Changed it, figured we had just had some really bad luck. When I made that post on Friday it looked like everything was working.

Nope. At this point we really have no clue what the issue is, but the season is done. We'll (hopefully) figure it out once the crate gets back to our shop.

Congratulations to all of the winners at Palmetto!
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2011 Peachtree Regional Dean's List Recipient
2011 Peachtree Regional Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award
2011 Lemelson/MIT InvenTeams Grant
2010 North Carolina Regional Chairmans Award
2010 Peachtree Regional Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award
2010 SeaWorld Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Award
2009 Peachtree Regional Chairmans Award
2008 Peachtree Regional Judges Award