Solenoid Issue

[chall3613]

Ok, thank you. I'll check for the light in the morning.

We are using, I don't know if it's last years solenoid, but its a single. We felt this was less complicated since all we have to do is make the cylinder go up and down.

Also, are you saying there is nothing wrong with my programming?

If so, that would be much easier, since we have to be done with the robot tomorrow.

[chall3613]

Ok, it has to be the programming because the solenoid breakout has the one green light on, and doesn't turn red when I pull the trigger, which means its not electircal, right?

[Mark McLeod]

The rows of green LEDs on the solenoid module will turn green if a single solenoid is ordered "on" and will be off if ordered "off".
There is no red.

A double solenoid should alternate green on one LED while the corresponding reverse LED is off, and vice versa when it is set to "Forward" and "Reverse"

[chall3613]

For our single solenoid, the green light is always on. What does that mean?

[Mark McLeod]

That would be a code problem.

Your code sets the solenoid "On", but never "Off", or at least it immediately gets reset to "On' if you are managing to set it to "Off".
Off never gets a chance.

[chall3613]

i tried reversing the on and off, moving the wire and changing the programming to 3 on the solenoid breakout and I also tried changing buttons. nothing worked. it is always on.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by chall3613

...the solenoid breakout has the one green light on,...

The solenoid breakout only has one green LED, and that indicates only that it is receiving power. You need to look at the array of eight green LEDs on the NI 9472 Digital Sourcing Module installed in slot 3 of the cRIO. They are labeled 0-7, corresponding to solenoid outputs 1-8.

[chall3613]

The Solenoid breakout is the blue board plugged into the NI 9472?

[bstites82]

Yes, the breakout is the smallish circuit board that plugs into the NI 9472 module. Like Alan said, there is one led on the breakout to indicate it has power, and then there are 8 leds on the NI 9472 module itself. If you cant see a reaction from any of the 8 leds, then try assigning an empty solonoid channel, lets say chanel 8. So in begin all you need to do is open the solenoid and assign it to channel 8, and then do a solenoid set with a constant of on wired to the input. Now when run the code and enable your robot the led indicator for channel 8 will go on and never turn off. So hopefully that will help you find the leds. Your code seemed as if it should do what you wanted to, once you find the led's and see if they are actuating you will know if the code is responding correctly. if the leds actuate but the valve does not bu sure to check the wiring and voltage requirements of the solenoid valve.

[chall3613]

I changed it to a victor plugged into relay. Is the relay incorrect? My teacher is saying to plug it into the Digital I/O but I dont know how to work that in the programming.

The solenoid is hooked into the victor on the M+ and M- side, then into 30A on the power board with the 20A plug.

I also have it all RELAY on the programming.

[Alan Anderson]

Remove the Victor immediately. You're going to burn something up.

Solenoids do not connect to Speed Controllers. They connect either to the Solenoid Breakout on the DIO module, or to a Spike controlled by a Relay output on the Digital Sidecar.

Is your solenoid a 12V part or a 24V part?

[chall3613]

Ok we found a spike! Turns out webster thomas gave us one. I plugged it into RELAY 3. should it all work right now? People are still cutting and tightening bolts and fileing. so i have to wait a few minutes.

[chall3613]

It didn't work. Am i allowed to keep just the solenoid and the spike out of the bag to work on it?