Jaguar vs Vector

[arithehun]

So, in our LabView project, we had a PVM channel hooked up to a jaguar, which was hooked up to a motor. It's speed was controlled by the y-axis of a joystick, and activated by pressing a button. This all worked fine, but for hardware issues, our team leader changed the jaguar to a victor. I have not changed anything except changing the PVM driver from a jaguar sensor to a victor sensor, but now it does not work.

Any ideas?

[Bryan Herbst]

What sort of feedback are you getting from the Victor (ie from the LED)?

Are you sure that the Victor is working properly? Have you tried a different Victor?

[wilsonmw04]

IF i remember correctly, in previous years you had to choose between a Victor and a Jag in LV. Is this still accurate?

[ratdude747]

yes, in begin.vi, you need to switch the motor setting from jaguar to victor.

[Alan Anderson]

Victors are notoriously tricky to plug the PWM connector into reliably. Make sure you get it properly seated.

[Wolfgang]

The good news is that victors seem to be far more reliable.

The biggest difference between the two is that victors control speed mechanically while jaguars control it electrically.

Additionally, jaguars are a lot bigger than victors.

[mwtidd]

I know in the programming if you don't have a jaguar hooked up to a port registered as a jag it can cause all sorts of issues. I would change the jag to a victor in programming too...

[BornaE]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

The good news is that victors seem to be far more reliable.

The biggest difference between the two is that victors control speed mechanically while jaguars control it electrically.

Additionally, jaguars are a lot bigger than victors.

What does this mean?
mechanically?

There are no mechanical parts in a victor or jaguar, besides the fans.

[DavidGitz]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

The good news is that victors seem to be far more reliable.

I think this is VERY debatable. There are advantages and disadvantages to each device. I do not know the exact statistics for my current team, but for my prior team I believe we were pretty much dead even for reliability* between Jaguar's and Victor's.

*Reliability also increases considerably when installed and powered correctly according to manufacturer specifications.

[Ether]

Victors create far more ripple current in the motor, which means the motor gets hotter compared to a Jaguar-driven motor with the same torque output.

[MrForbes]

Program in LV must match the parts you have on the robot.

Both Victors and Jaguars work. We've experienced the same number of failures with both, but more reliability with Victors--we used 4 jaguars on one robot, and one of them died at a post-season demo. We've used 4 to 6 victors on our other 4 robots, and had one bad out of the box, and never any other failures.

Neither one has what I would consider sufficient markings on the terminals to prevent miswiring. These parts are used by students who often have little knowledge of the importance of wiring stuff up properly, and the implications of miswiring--they should have highly legible markings to help the user figure out instantly which terminal is positive, which is negative, and which side the motor connects to. The little painted screws don't help at all if you have to remove them to install the wires!