cRio not being recognized

[Dochartaigh]

In a pickle. Late start programming. Today we imaged our cRio, received the confirmation message that it was updated, hit rescan and...
Well, the image does not produce the green and red imaging for us to detect the slots in the cRio. We tried to rescan, it says it is in safe mode. It is not in safe mode. If that was not enough, we repowered the system and now the cRio does not show power. The led lights on the components are working though.

Any helpful hints or solutions out there?

Thanks,
Desperate

[Mark McLeod]

I assume this is an original model cRIO?

From your description my first suspicion would be that there is loose metal dust/debris shifting around inside the cRIO case (if this is an older cRIO).
That doesn't mean that it's damaged. The cRIO can take a lot of abuse and keeps ticking, but metal debris can temporarily short out parts of the circuits producing similar symptoms. Newer cRIO's aren't so susceptible to this.

It's easy enough to check.
Here are directions on cleaning it out and adding gaskets (you don't have to pay attention to the gaskets part if you don't have them):
http://team358.org/files/programming...%20Gaskets.pdf
Just handle the cRIO internals gently and carefully, holding only the edges of the circuit board.
I do the cleaning over an unused sheet of copy paper so I can see what falls out.

Other possibilities include not receiving 24v from the Power Distribution Panel. You can test this with a multi-meter at the cRIO power terminal.
That can be a low battery or a bad connection anywhere along the power lines leading from the battery, but the PDP power lights should be out if you have a low battery or bad wiring leading into the PDP.
By components I also assume you are referring to the Breakout boards mounted on the cRIO modules?
Those are powered separately from the cRIO, but would also indicate that the PDP is receiving at least some battery power.

[Dochartaigh]

Thank you. We cleaned it out and put on a fresh battery, three volts are not enough!

So now we have green on slot 1 and red on slots 2, 4, and 8. These are the same slots we have used every year. Any ideas on that?

Thank you,
John

[Mark McLeod]

The slots for the modules have changed this year to make the image sharable between the new/old cRIOs.

The two required are:
Slot 1 = Analog
Slot 2 = Digital (for the sidecar)

Optional ones vary depending on the CRIO model, but for the older cRIO are:
Slot 3 = solenoid (optional-red is okay if you aren't planning to use it)
Slot 4 = unused
Slot 5 = second Analog
Slot 6 = second Digital
Slot 7 = second Solenoid
Slot 8 = unused


This also changes how the code addresses these modules.
If you used the defaults and didn't explicitly specify the module, then your code should be okay.
If you do specify the module, then it's no longer by Slot #, it's by the occurrence of the type of module, i.e., the first Digital module is module 1 (although it's in Slot 2), while the second digtal module is 2 (although it's in Slot 6).

[Dochartaigh]

Thanks for your help. AND your speedy response.
John