Spike Relay Light Flickering

[Brandon]

We are having issues with our spike relays. When trying to control them by having one button run them forward and one different button run them in reverse, the light flickers and sounds can be heard that sound like shorting or arcing. All wiring and programming are in good order, have been triple checked, and several different programming methods have been attempted. Also, have tested on several different spikes wired to different spots on the power distribution board. When holding down the button to run the spike, the light on the sidecar as well as the spike itself flickers on and off, and the light is dimmer than a working light. When tested with a meter the voltage is flickering as well. When trying to run the spike in the opposite direction the proper light lights on the sidecar (still flickering) but the light on spike does not change. We have tried using a different joystick to the same end. And yes, in the program in the Begin.vi the relay is set to run in both directions. Could there be some problem with the default program in which it isn't refreshing joystick values quickly enough? I went into timed tasks and added the second joystick in there (I don't totally understand the timed tasks vi). Also, I programmed some spikes to constantly run in either forward or reverse to see if they had the flickering problem. They do not. For whatever reason introducing a button seems to mess things up. Any suggestions? Thanks

[sparkydp]

It sounds like you might be setting the relay in more than one place. I would remove all but one of your sets, see if that helps (do a find all instances on the relay set vi). Make sure you aren't trying to control the same relay with the joystick, that you've setup somewhere else to be your compressor.

If not, try setting the relay directly, with a constant value (instead of wiring to the joystick), and see if that value fluctuates rapidly too.

If that cleans it up, start debugging the joystick output.

Make sure you're checking the error out on your set, and that you aren't getting any error messages in the dashboard.

[Brandon]

As I read your reply, I started thinking about your response. And as I thought about it, I realized I do have it setting the relay value in more than one place. Thank you so much! I will fix that right now and hopefully that will fix it! Thank you!