Reversed Polarity

[Team 4264]

Someone screwed the battery cables on backwards and then installed that battery. The power brick started clicking wildly, and then turned it off. Once we figured out what had happened and switched the cables, many of the lights don't work.3 JAgs no lights, 1 with yellow, Crio lights=yes, sidecar lights=yes orange lights on fuse boxes, and fuses are ok. Is it fried or is there a hidden reset? Please reply in rookie speak. =)
Thanks

[EricVanWyk]

The good news is that your PD, cRIO, and DSC (sidecar) are all fine.

The bad news is that your Jaguars are all fried. You will need to replace them.

[Team 4264]

OMG!
Even the one with the yellow light?

[EricVanWyk]

The one with the yellow light may continue to work for some amount of time, but you should consider it to be damaged and likely to fail soon. It might be workable for a practice robot, but I would not trust it in competition.

[Team 4264]

Is there a part inside the Jags that can be replaced? $400 replacement blows our budget and Andymark is out of them.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Team 4264

Someone screwed the battery cables on backwards and then installed that battery. The power brick started clicking wildly, and then turned it off. Once we figured out what had happened and switched the cables, many of the lights don't work.3 JAgs no lights, 1 with yellow, Crio lights=yes, sidecar lights=yes orange lights on fuse boxes, and fuses are ok. Is it fried or is there a hidden reset? Please reply in rookie speak. =)
Thanks

We did this a few years ago. We fried 3 jags ... and the 4th jag survived just fine. It's a risk to use that jag in competition, and you'll have to decide if it's worth the risk.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Team 4264

Is there a part inside the Jags that can be replaced? $400 replacement blows our budget and Andymark is out of them.

The damage internally will be severe (blown FETs and most likey other components).

Digi-key has them, and you should have a digikey voucher for $50 in the KOP. Sorry man, thats what happends.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Digikey doesn't have them at the moment, actually. They seem to be out of stock. Along with the rest of the world.

As Daniel says, you're going to be fighting quite an uphill battle trying to repair those. I think you have two options:
1. Beg, borrow, or buy any black or grey jaguars off of teams that are near you.
2. Switch to VexPro Victor 884 Speed Controllers. There's loads of teams that swear by them anyways, and they're $10 cheaper than Jags. If you're not using the advanced functionality of the Jaguars, these will work atleast as well for you.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

they're $10 cheaper than Jags

Where can Victors be bought for $75?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Team 4264

Someone screwed the battery cables on backwards and then installed that battery.

Your team (or leaders) should sit down and figure out how that happened (not to place blame, but to understand), and figure out if there is something you can do to prevent it from happening again (both this year and in the years to come).

Different teams come up with different solutions. Find something that works for your team.

[Bill_B]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

Digikey doesn't have them at the moment, actually. They seem to be out of stock. Along with the rest of the world.

As Daniel says, you're going to be fighting quite an uphill battle trying to repair those. I think you have two options:
1. Beg, borrow, or buy any black or grey jaguars off of teams that are near you.
2. Switch to VexPro Victor 884 Speed Controllers. There's loads of teams that swear by them anyways, and they're $10 cheaper than Jags. If you're not using the advanced functionality of the Jaguars, these will work atleast as well for you.

CD swap shows someone with victors offering them to us. check him out. No jaguars listed, but you could enter a NEED for them if you like. I don't know if we have unused ones in our chaotic "storehouse".

I second the need for determining how to prevent reverse polarity disasters by figuring out how it happened. It's an uphill struggle to convince the team members that I'm not seeking a blame target. It's been rare or absent in their lives so far.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Ether

Where can Victors be bought for $75?

Where can you get a Black Jaguar for $85? Vex is selling Victors for $89. I was comparing to the AM discounted Jaguar Bundle price of $99. Digikey will sell them to you for $109, though you do get a $50 voucher at Digikey. That's pretty much the price at Mouser, Avnet, Newark, and TI itself. None of whom have stock, so you can't have a Jaguar at any price anyways, but still.

TI says Rochester Electronics has 50 Jaguars in stock, and Rochester lists some if you search for "MDL-BDC24", but I'll be darned if I know how you order some from them.

[Mark McLeod]

Digikey sells them to FIRST teams at a special discount.
$85

Don't pay list price.

[FrankJ]

The first discount at digikey Is $85.
Go here

Should work even if you have used your $50.00 coupon. But they are not showing stock

[cgmv123]

DigiKey is supposed to be selling Jaguars to FIRST teams for $85. I think that's what we payed for ours.