Thread: Spike Relay?
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Unread 03-02-2012, 09:02
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Re: Spike Relay?

I just struggled with that last night ;-) Remember, I'm a software guy - but here's the list of problems I had with our I&T chassis, so maybe they'll help you.

(1) Make sure there is a fuse in the power distribution panel port you have the relay wired to. When you power on the robot, the LED on the Spike should be glowing brightly.

(2) The PWM goes from the Spike to one of the Relay ports on the digital side car.

(3) We made a PWM cable with the connector to plug into one of the DIO ports on the digital sidecar and left the black and white wires stripped on the other end.

(4) Make sure you do the constructor to the Compressor in the right order (the WPI documentation text enumerates them one way, and the actual argument order is reversed).

(5) Make sure you call start() after creating the instance.

(6) Short the two wires to the DIO together and the compressor will run (simulates low pressure). Separate them and the compressor will stop.

If you are sending the data to the default Dashboard that comes with the NI install, you should see the appropriate lights on the GPIO and the Relay 'LEDs'.
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