Power Distribution Board

[RoboBucs]

Has anyone experienced problems with the 2015 Power Distribution Board? We have just now experienced 2 of the pairs of positive and negative ports not sending out any power. I'v tried it with different breakers, wires, and controllers that were all confirmed working. Is this something that can be fixed or will we have to get a new one?

[nighterfighter]

Are the ports outputting ANY voltage? Test with a multimeter.

Are the 2 ports next to each other? Are they the 40A or 20A ports? Are there any metal shavings that could be shorting something out?

[RoboBucs]

We currently don't have a volt meter so we tried shorting the wires and there was no spark at all. They aren't next to each other either, they are on opposites sides and a couple down from each other. They are 40A and we've blown into them and don't see any metal shavings in them at all.

[RoboBucs]

We did just try it with a volt meter and no power was coming from it

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by RoboBucs

We did just try it with a volt meter and no power was coming from it

Just to be sure: You did have a fuse in the correct place, right?

Also, I would recommend NOT intentionally shorting the wires together, just for future reference.

As for the problem at hand: Did this suddenly happen or has it been a problem all season? If it did just happen, what was previously connected to it?

And all the other ports are working fine? Does the roboRIO Web interface show any errors on the PDP?

[RoboBucs]

We had breakers in all of the slots so I know there was one there. This problem just recently occurred, it has had a motor controller hooked up to it all season and we recently took them all out. The wires may have been shorted when we took them out, would that have to do with it?
What do you mean by the "RoboRio Web Interface"? Is that the driver station in Labview?

[philso]

Originally Posted by RoboBucs

We had breakers in all of the slots so I know there was one there. This problem just recently occurred, it has had a motor controller hooked up to it all season and we recently took them all out. The wires may have been shorted when we took them out, would that have to do with it?

In the future, please open the main breaker and disconnect your battery before doing any work on your wiring.

You may also want to find out if there are some established teams in your area who can help your team climb the learning curve. You will enjoy the experience much more.

[RoboBucs]

Are the motor controllers able to run off of the 30 Amp ports? If so then I won't need the ones that aren't working

[RoboBucs]

Its the one on the right that isn't working. the left one is.

[ozrien]

Most common symptom I've seen is releasing the WAGO connector in such a way where it pinches the insulation instead of the copper.

Try the attached test procedure to see what the problem is.

[Thad House]

Why do you guys have Red and Black inverted on that 30A breaker. Could that cause the problem?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by RoboBucs

We currently don't have a volt meter so we tried shorting the wires and there was no spark at all.

The PDP (note: Power Distribution Panel) is built with seriously hefty copper traces. If part of it is not working when a breaker is correctly installed, it's probably physically broken such that I would expect the damage to be obvious.

Can you take a photo of it and show us what it looks like when it isn't providing power on the Wago terminals you expect it to? Give us a good look at the wires and the circuit breaker.

[RoboBucs]

I did all the voltage testing, and there was no voltage coming from the wago connectors. I also didn't experience any voltage through the breakers but it was the same for all the breakers that were working too.

Concerning the black and red switched wires, some of our guys had to solder the wires and they soldered the red to the ground port and the black to the positive port because it wasn't labeled on the camera they were soldering it to, so the red is actually the ground and the black is the positive.

[ozrien]

Originally Posted by RoboBucs

... I also didn't experience any voltage through the breakers but it was the same for all the breakers that were working too.

This does not help us deduce what is going on. Did you make contact with the exposed metal portion of the breaker (please see P1 and P2 in the pic to find the exposed metal).

[rich2202]

Try swapping the breakers in #6 and #7.
Power on the robot, but don't try to do anything.
See if you get power in #6, and not in #7. It could be a bad breaker.
Put the good 20 amp breaker back into #7.

BTW: what camera are you using? Most are 5 volts, and can't be powered directly from the PDB.

You will have to fix the wire coloring before a competition. Robot Inspectors will ding you for that.