BIG Problems with the New Talons SR!

[alexander.h]

Hello! Our team has a very big problem with the new Talons Sr. I know that if they are flashing orange, there is no signal or they are not working. The thing is that sometimes they work (they don't flash orange), sometimes they don't work (they flash orange), sometimes they all work for only 5 seconds, etc. We've tried everything from redoing the code (with two programming mentors double-checking and confirming that there's nothing wrong with the code) to rebooting the cRIO to restarting the robot to changing the PWM cables to changing the places on the Digital Sidecar to changing everything but the kitchen sink! Could someone please help us?

[SoftwareBug2.0]

If you try a different type of speed controller does it behave properly?

[mickztlin]

If everything were to be workig perfectly (components and such), do you know if the side car is conected to the pd board? I know its probably something wrong with the talon, but im just checking.

[Hoover]

Check for metal filings in the Digital Side Car. It is the perfect place for them to fall and short contacts. Look close as they are tiny. This happened to us last year. We tried our best to cover electronics when working but now we try harder.

[Brandon Ha]

Could you possibly have a low battery issue?
I know that when they do not show any light that could be a issue

[cmwilson13]

sounds like the ribbon cable to me. the cable that runs from the crio to the digital sidecar. check that it is fully seated. try a different one. the probability that multiple talons went out at once seems unlikely to me so check anything that can affect them all at once

[loyal]

Did you remover the factory installed jumpers? They are small enough to over look.

[cmwilson13]

Originally Posted by loyal

Did you remover the factory installed jumpers? They are small enough to over look.

what jumpers are you referring to?

[Chris_Ely]

Originally Posted by loyal

Did you remover the factory installed jumpers? They are small enough to over look.

If you are referring to the coast/brake jumpers, they have to be installed in order for the Talon to work properly. Setting the jumper to coast will allow the motor to rotate freely when the Talon is disabled. Setting it to brake will prevent the motor from rotating when disabled.

[ozrien]

Sounds like its an issue that presents across multiple speed controllers, so I would sanity check the Digital Side Car (try another?). Lots of good suggestions above. If you have an oscilloscope you can confirm if the PWM pulse looks good. Talons and Talon SRs decode PWM the same way so I don't think it's SR related.

[electroken]

Originally Posted by Hoover

Check for metal filings in the Digital Side Car. It is the perfect place for them to fall and short contacts. Look close as they are tiny. This happened to us last year. We tried our best to cover electronics when working but now we try harder.

+1 on this. We've had metal chips in the Digital Sidecar several times over the years, and they can cause all sorts of bizarre behavior. Talons are pretty hard to hurt.

[Chris_Ely]

Have you tried using something other than the Talon? If the same issue occurs, then problem isn't the controller. Also, are you sure that the black wire of the PWM cable is lined up with the 'B' on the Talon?

Here is the Talon User Manual.

[Cecil]

I'd also check to see if your Digital Sidecar is fully powered. Are all 3 lights glowing bright on the Sidecar? Does the Signal Light flash at all?

[marccenter]

Dear Alexander,

I'm sorry you're having such much trouble right now. Let CD try to help you get over this hurdle.

Can you try a sideways solution? Can you get hold of another method to drive the PWM signals like a VEX controller or one of the signal generators that output just a PWM signal? IF you can confirm that you have a known good PWM signal that may help your debug efforts to be directed to the cable , power connections and the Talon SR itself.

Regards,