2015 Control System Frying Victors

[NotInControl]

Originally Posted by icecube45

Hello!

When the robot is disabled, the robot continues to spin in a circle,

You have a short, either at the motor controller or the drivetrain motor itself (case short). I would highly suggest checking your wiring again.

We have used over 4 different RoboRio's since 2013 (Alpha and Beta testing) and have not had a single issue with any of them frying motor controllers on a correctly wired system.

Hope that helps,
Kevin

[icecube45]

Originally Posted by NotInControl

You have a short, either at the motor controller or the drivetrain motor itself (case short). I would highly suggest checking your wiring again.

We have used over 4 different RoboRio's since 2013 (Alpha and Beta testing) and have not had a single issue with any of them frying motor controllers on a correctly wired system.

Hope that helps,
Kevin

I believe the victor is frying in such a way that it shorts, being as the only motor moving at the time of disable, is the fried victor.

[tStano]

I have had no roboRIO experience yet, but, the cRIO control system outputs 5v through the red cable in the PWM by default(presumably for the use of speedcontrollers), but page 13 of the roboRIO manual says it outputs 6v there always.

However, if this was a real problem, it would have gotten caught in beta testing, and it wasn't. It is probably not the issue. As to what is, I couldn't tell you. Its definitely shorting with that kind of voltage drop.

Link to roboRIO manual https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30419

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by tStano

I have had no roboRIO experience yet, but, the cRIO control system outputs 5v through the red cable in the PWM by default(presumably for the use of speedcontrollers), but page 13 of the roboRIO manual says it outputs 6v there always.

The Digital Sidecar output 6V on the center pin when the servo jumper was installed. It was disconnected when the servo jumper was not installed. The roboRIO does output 6v all the time on the center pin. However, all FRC legal speed controllers have the center pin disconnected, so it doesn't matter what the roboRIO outputs.

[icecube45]

So, turns out we were just unlucky...

We put on a fourth victor, and after using combinations of the pdp and pdb, we trusted it enough to hook everything up.

It worked fine..

I guess all we've learned from this is:

it's the mechanical team's fault.

[tStano]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

The Digital Sidecar output 6V on the center pin when the servo jumper was installed. It was disconnected when the servo jumper was not installed. The roboRIO does output 6v all the time on the center pin. However, all FRC legal speed controllers have the center pin disconnected, so it doesn't matter what the roboRIO outputs.

Thanks! I didn't know that, and was wondering how that worked.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by icecube45

So, turns out we were just unlucky...

We put on a fourth victor, and after using combinations of the pdp and pdb, we trusted it enough to hook everything up.

It worked fine..

I guess all we've learned from this is:

it's the mechanical team's fault.

So did you find out what the actual problem was though, so you can avoid it in the future? (Or maybe help any other teams reading who might have the same problem?)

I'm assuming it was inverted polarity?

[John Retkowski]

it's the mechanical team's fault.

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

So did you find out what the actual problem was though, so you can avoid it in the future? (Or maybe help any other teams reading who might have the same problem?)

I'm assuming it was inverted polarity?

It was obviously all the code weighing down on the victor fan causing the victor to over heat and get a nice crispy golden brown color all over.

It's always the programmers fault.

[icecube45]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

So did you find out what the actual problem was though, so you can avoid it in the future? (Or maybe help any other teams reading who might have the same problem?)

I'm assuming it was inverted polarity?

It was not inverted polarity...

We just had 3 unlucky victors in a row
(see: mechanical people stupidly drilling over electronics)

[dubiousSwain]

Originally Posted by John Retkowski

It was obviously all the code weighing down on the victor fan causing the victor to over heat and get a nice crispy golden brown color all over.

It's always the programmers fault.

We're overweight! Quick, delete some code!

It's always the co-captain's fault.