[AmLameBro]

(Skip ahead to the bold if you just want to find out what happened. Otherwise, enjoy this sordid tale of love and loss)

I have just returned from a very long session in which the entire team tried to, among other things, get the goshdarn Jaguars working again. In the end, we were successful, but the tale is one of such stupidity that it should be engraved in drool upon a failed math test.

Titanic efforts were made in every aspect to resolve the issue; we tried resetting the cRIO, completely redoing wiring that everyone knew was right, exhausting every online source even vaguely related to our issue, and so on. Historians will speak of the countless hours spent wasting time in this manner, for the real issue, unknown until the eleventh hour, was not due to a lack of competence, but a staggering amount of incompetence.

You see, on Monday everything was fine and dandy. On Tuesday and Wednesday, work was being done on the final electrical box, and I, as the team programmer, decided to take those days off. Woe to me that I should have been absent, for it was then and there that the unthinkable happened: non-electricians were assigned to re-do the wiring.

Understand, fellows, that the amount of work required by the regular electrical people had dwindled steadily once the configuration was figured out. Much effort in the first few weeks was spent trying to figure it out, as we are only a second year team, with most of the heavy lifters having graduated last year. Towards the final weeks, though, the electrical people stopped attending as often. Thus, the irregulars were assigned the all-too-important task of re-wiring everything.

So basically, the wiring guys here messed up. A lot. Fried the bajeezus out of the digital sidecar, but only to such an extent that the PWM ports didn't work. Due to the relay ports still working, everyone was misled endlessly. We just switched out the digital sidecar and everything went back to being fine and dandy. Fortunately, they didn't break the cRIO.

The lesson to take from this? Be steadfast and vigilant in observing whoever gets to work on the electrical components. Beware the dangers of reverse polarity, of voltage oversupply, of DSC power port going into analog breakout. Resist the time-saving demons, for they will only consume you in the long run. Heed the fragility of the electrical components.