Problems With FCS and Samantha

[Andrew Lobos]

We've had what appears to be this same issue on both our 2012 and 2013 robots. In both cases, the JoystickDriver debug output for the external battery went to OFF even though the controller chain was powered and connected. We found that only the first controller becomes unresponsive - it would see the controllers if we made any other controller in the chain the primary one. A power cycle always fixed the issue, but it was just a matter of time before it happened again.

In both cases we ended up replacing the controller and not having the issue happen again on that robot. I'm not sure if the controllers are cheaply made, or if we just stress them more than they expected, but it seems like this is an issue with the design of it.

[Team230]

Hmm, good to know that this at least isn't an isolated issue. Do you think we should try to change the order of our controllers to see if the problem is indeed in our first one as well?

[Andrew Lobos]

What we did was:

- Waited for the controller chain to drop. At this point there is one battery icon in the top right of the NXT display and JoystickDriver's debug screen lists: "Ext Batt: OFF"

- Without cutting power, connect the NXT to the second controller in the chain. (assuming it's not a servo controller), our NXT saw the battery voltage and could talk to it.

- Again without cutting power, move the NXT back to the first controller. Our NXT was still not able to communicate.

Could you see if your robot acts the same?

If you wanted to change the order of the controllers, I would put the one you suspect to be bad on the end. That way if it drops, it shouldn't take anything with it.