Drive Motors turning off then losing signal

[Greg McKaskle]

Ah, yes.

Check your digital sidecar wiring

I meant to include that one. Specifically, verify that you have supplied power to the digital breakout itself. The PWM signal supplies just enough power for a few motors to function when no power is connected to the breakout, but it isn't predictable and needs its own power in order to operate correctly.

Greg McKaskle

[Wildcats1378]

Thanks for the answers!

I don't think it is the motors moving against each other, because they WILL spin, but they lose signal. Hard to explain but we definantly made sure they were not moving against each other.

The gearbox is fine because again, they do work, but it's only in one direction. I'm thinking it is an electrical issue.

As per reformatting the cRIO, we didn't really know what to do so that was one of our last options. And we've rewrote the code several times with and without the watchdog.

What exactly do you mean by supply power to the digital breakout? This sounds like it could be the problem. Is this a module on the cRIO or is it on the digital sidecar itself. Noob question, I know . It's been a while.

Thanks for the answers though!

[CalTran]

It'd be the sidecar itself. Down at the bottom (Where PWM port 1 is) there should be a Wago connector that carries 12v from the Power Distribution Board.

[Wildcats1378]

I'm almost postive we have that plugged in. It might not be the right voltage though, I'll check on monday.

[Brandon_L]

Grab a spare Jag from somewhere, power it, and plug in a PWM. If it functions properly, you've got 2 bad jags. We had the same problem not long ago, and thought we were going crazy because we replaced a bad jag with another bad jag.

3rd times the charm.

You can easily check if the motors are fighting each other by disconnecting one of the PWMs and running the other.

[Alan Anderson]

The symptoms point perfectly to the Digital Sidecar not receiving battery power. Make sure you've got its power input wired to a 20-amp circuit on the Power Distribution Board.

[Wildcats1378]

Yeah, sorry for not coming back and answering! It turns out we did not have the power coming from the right source! Found a handy wiring guide that I cannot believe we did not have before.

Thanks guys!