View Single Post
  #59   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 04-04-2012, 13:02
techhelpbb's Avatar
techhelpbb techhelpbb is offline
Registered User
FRC #0011 (MORT - Team 11)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Rookie Year: 1997
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,624
techhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Intermittent connection on field only

Quote:
Originally Posted by DMike View Post
We had the same issue in CT. 4 out of 10 matches we were fine, 5 had intermittent, 1 had no robot control post autonomous, in now particular order. The robot ran fine on the wire and also fine on test radio's in the pit and on the practice field. After much testing (on and off the field) we discovered that our four JAG controllers on the drive were overloading. It appears there was a delay or lag in signal quality, our driver would unknowingly increase voltage through joystick position. When the signal would return the voltage position was high and the JAGS would overload. The process would repeat itself, 3 seconds off- 15 seconds on- 4 seconds off 15 seconds on, over and over. If the driver waited 20-30 seconds the robot would drive again only to suffer the same issue soon after. Very frustrating.
I am not a fan of suggesting it but I should tell you anyway.

If push comes to shove and you can't locate a reasonable resolution to your intermittent overload on the Jaguars, perhaps you could consider using Victors for at least the most likely overloaded systems.

Using the Victors won't actually stop you from overloading the system, but the Victors will just brute force until they self-destruct and if all else were to fail that might be sufficient to get you through till you can either adjust the software or the hardware to resolve this issue.

Keep in mind, what you'd be doing is not a good idea with the Victors either, but if it's rare and intermittent they'll probably survive it. If it's not a rare overload then you might literally be playing with fire (or at least smoke).

Obviously this would mean possibly adding PWM for the Victors to a robot that might not be using PWM to control the Jaguars and this might mean retuning the controls for the differences. This could also involve tinkering with some wiring. However, you could prepare for such a change in advance of competition.

Last edited by techhelpbb : 04-04-2012 at 14:07.