PCM

[s_forbes]

Some issues with the PCM came up over the weekend while testing on our practice robot. We were reading solenoid faults when operating a lot of mechanisms at once in quick succession, giving the flashing red signal on the status light and solenoids that no longer respond. The manual lists that combined current for all channels should not be more than 500mA, and we were running several 5 watt (12v) solenoids from previous years.

We spent some time selecting the right default position for our single action solenoids (swapping hoses and values in code) to limit how many are being fired at once. Also adjusted the double action solenoids to activate with a pulse rather than a continuous hold, which is how they were initially set up in code. This seemed to make our issues go away. Really we should be using some lower power solenoids and not so many single action solenoids for our pneumatics.

Check out the manual at Vexpro here: http://content.vexrobotics.com/vexpr...e-20150219.pdf Very handy for troubleshooting.