[enrique]

Hello all. This year team 1251 started off 100% CAN this year at the Orlando regional. Our robot worked in the pits, but would not work on the field. We switched to PWM, for the mean time and it started working. Later we found out our serial adapter was missing the resistor that it was supposed to have. My guess is that the missing resistor opened the CAN network to interference from the field. We then put the CAN network back on and half of the motors on it. 2 motors on the drive system where PWM and the other 2 where CAN. Our shooter motors where also 100% CAN. Everything worked fine, except we had 1 PWM pop out and one of the PWM drive motors stopped, even with glue on the connector. When we went to the regional in Fort Lauderdale, we switched 2CAN. I really was impressed with 2CAN. Plus overtheroad electronics provided good support. We did have some of the CAN network go out 1 time in Fort Lauderdale. I found it was a 12 pin connector we used from radio shack, built up corrosion and would cut power to a couple of the jaguars. The connector pins where black (Char). Removing this connector fixed the problem. I hear the current protection is being changed. I have to say, this year there where motors plugged in backwards (opposing). Each time this happened, the jaguars went to protect mode and we fixed it. In the past I have had victors blow, because of this. Of course, you should not wire the motor backwards, but its nice to know it will not cost you money if it happens. I have read some threads with people causing the jaguars to go into protect mode with correct wiring. I would venture to say the motor in some cases are working to hard and probably do not have a proper gearbox for the job. But as it stands, we now feel comfortable enough and experienced enough to go 100% CAN.