View Single Post
  #171   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 09-03-2009, 12:27
esquared's Avatar
esquared esquared is offline
Keeps saying 3-2-1-Rush...
AKA: Angry Eric
no team (Volunteer!)
Team Role: Mascot
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Rookie Year: 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 192
esquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond reputeesquared has a reputation beyond repute
Re: 2009 Finger Lakes Regional!!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank View Post
I'm afraid we found nothing. We checked every terminal and every wire from the battery all the way to the cRIO. We then tethered up and drove the robot around (with the same battery); it worked fine. We rammed it repeatedly into a wall to see if there were any loose connections to dislodge; nothing. We always run electrical checks between matches, and we always zip-tie our battery connectors, and we didn't experience a single electrical problem at FLR up to that point. I guess I don't believe in coincidences...
Pat,
Thanks for the followup. I will add your issue to the list of things to try and reproduce given what we saw on the field with regards to the RSL and the eventual situation with the center console's E-Stop.

If you were able to watch the robot's operation from your position in the audience/driver station, do you agree the Robot Signal Light was behaving as specified in my post? I'd like to have everyone on the same page regarding robot symptoms to ensure that NI/FIRST have accurate information regarding what happened.

While I'm not privy to the design details of the cRIO or the DS (I'm just another mentor), the only way I know of to remotely restart a cRIO is to issue a 'reboot' command on a console connection to the RIO, given your confidence level in the power system and ability to ram your robot into the wall (understandable after what happened).

While I don't normally believe in coincidences, your bots behavior matched a brownout or reset condition on the cRIO. I did go over the robot's power and data connections with your drive team immediately after the match to try and identify if there was anything loose, possibly anything that was wrong with your bot on the field was fixed when checking the connections. That's a pretty farfetched theory however, as while they were doing that I did not see any sketchy connections