Compressor and No Selenoid

[Hoover]

We are using pneumatics for the first time this year. Since I wasn't around for this teams rookie year things got lost. I had to round up all the pneumatics parts I could find.

I didn't do well. The brass fitting were gone so we ordered more of them and now we have plenty. After a day or two of rummaging I found the air connectors for the double solenoid. But I couldn't find the side clips for it and had to order them.

Consequently I can't wire the solenoid to the PCM.

What I was going to do today was check the compressor and the air system for leaks. But without the solenoid the PCM just blinks red. I don't see any way around this and will probably have to wait for the clips.

I tried to add some compressor code but this won't work since the PCM is not in a ready state.

[Team3266Spencer]

The PCM is controlled via CAN. So make sure you daisy chained a CAN cable from the rRIO to the PCM and then to the PDP. You can force the compressor to start without a solenoid by creating a compressor in the code and then setting closed loop control to true.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by Hoover

We are using pneumatics for the first time this year. Since I wasn't around for this teams rookie year things got lost. I had to round up all the pneumatics parts I could find.

I didn't do well. The brass fitting were gone so we ordered more of them and now we have plenty. After a day or two of rummaging I found the air connectors for the double solenoid. But I couldn't find the side clips for it and had to order them.

Consequently I can't wire the solenoid to the PCM.

What I was going to do today was check the compressor and the air system for leaks. But without the solenoid the PCM just blinks red. I don't see any way around this and will probably have to wait for the clips.

I tried to add some compressor code but this won't work since the PCM is not in a ready state.

The PCM shouldn't care about the solenoid actually being attached. It has no way to tell if one is actually wired. As soon as you open a solenoid in code, and it can be on any channel, the compressor should automatically initialize and start working. The robot does have to be enabled for this to work though.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by Team3266Spencer

The PCM is controlled via CAN. So make sure you daisy chained a CAN cable from the rRIO to the PCM and then to the PDP. You can force the compressor to start without a solenoid by creating a compressor in the code and then setting closed loop control to true.

This is the point of confusion. We've never used CAN before and so it isn't in our vocabulary yet. I haven't found a document which clearly shows this wiring. But I have Google'd and found a picture posted by team 385 showing the PCM wiring including the CAN daisy chain. I will wire this tomorrow.

The PCM blinking red is the No CAN Comm. and not a solenoid fault as I had first thought.

From this document I can see the diagram at the top shows where CAN connects. But from the rest of the document they don't really emphasize it in any picture. Has anyone else been confused by this?

https://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s...he-2015-system

[Mark McLeod]

Look here about halfway down or search for PCM.
It demonstrates the CAN wiring.
https://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s...control-system

[Hoover]

This was a much better reference page. Mailed link to myself. Thanks!