Losing Jaguars? What are the common reasons why it burns out?

[Team 2524]

Since we started programming like a week ago, we lost one jaguar. My teacher was driving and then the robot's right motor kept on going. The jaguar was still supplying an electric current but, no LED light.

What are some common reasons or experience in which your jaguar burned out?

*(comments/experience on victor burnouts?)

[pfreivald]

We've had several Jaguars burn out for no apparent reason -- no shorts, no fried FETs, no nothing, they just quit (or in two cases refused to supply more than about 4.5 volts). We've had two (including a black Jag this year) die right out of the box the moment they were powered.

The only time we've ever had a Victor 884 fail was when a mentor who didn't know what he was doing shorted across the FETs with a multimeter. (He blew the fuse in the multimeter as well!)

[AllenGregoryIV]

We have lost 3 this year, all black. We think one was to an aluminum shaving inside the case but we haven't opened it to look. The other two just stopped working during driver practice, they didn't over heat of anything. Hopefully we don't have this problem at regionals.

[Chickenonastick]

As the previous poster mentioned, Jaguars are apparently quite sensitive to metal bits and pieces. Our team covers the electrical board with a cloth sheet before drilling/working on the chassis.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Team 2524

... My teacher was driving and then ...

Well there's your problem!

[dbeckwith]

Originally Posted by Chickenonastick

Our team covers the electrical board with a cloth sheet before drilling/working on the chassis.

We do the same.
Luckily, we've only lost one tan Jaguar this year, we think to a metal shaving, but we'll bring plenty of backups to the competition. Victors do seem more reliable certainly, but the Jaguars are more fancy and have more features. Ability for durability is the tradeoff I guess.

[Dad1279]

Metal bits & static.

[BrandonG]

I was just addressing ours and when I was done one died... no movement, not connected, it just decided it was done I guess.... o.o

[sithmonkey13]

1178 lost three this year: One tan one from someone wiring the battery in wrong, one tan one that mysteriously stopped working, and a black that due to a factory defect, actually caught on fire during a test (Video Below).

http://www.youtube.com/user/durt1178.../1/0BK6MG6mslo

[Kingofl337]

You shouldn't see black jags fail unless abused. The grey jags usually die because of ESD.

[bobosalad]

we lost 4 black jags and we covered while working on the robot. it was just plain bad... we saw a few fires and we saw a few no responses. good luck guys.

[TerryS]

We had one go out that was connected to a motor with a loose connector. Our EE surmised that the Jaguar did not like it's load cutting in and out due to the loose connection. We secured the motor connector and the replacement Jaguar held up for the rest of our pre-ship practices. We're careful about covering our electronics up if any metal cutting is going on.

[kws4000]

Last year, we were grinding down long bolts because of excess weight, and low and behold, a little turbine oil for the air cutter somehow worked its way into the Jag and we lost a little bit of that magic white smoke .

We've also found out that at least two of the Jags one of the little thingamajiggers on the board was broken/popped/black/missing.

Since then the majority of what we have been using is only Vics, not likely we'll be going back to Jags anytime soon.

The window motors don't like jags either, period.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

You shouldn't see black jags fail unless abused. The grey jags usually die because of ESD.

I wish this were true. 4 of the 6 Black Jaguars we ordered this year failed on us at some point. 2 of the 6 had broken LED's straight out of the box. The quality control on them seems to have gone down hill.

[martin417]

The only jag we lost (permanently) was when it was wired incorrectly (input power reversed). We currently have about 18 jags. We are using 8 jags to control our bot, and are running CAN bus (same as last year). We did have several stop responding while being addressed for CAN, but we were able to recover them using the recovery utility.

My recommendation: When addressing jags, do not try to address a whole string at once. For gray jags, use a black jag as the converter and only connect one gray jag at a time. For black jags, connect directly to one and only one black jag.