Strange system problem

[Bill Moore]

Just an idea, but in 2003 at Houston, we had a dificult Saturday morning. Everything ran fine on our robot Friday evening, and the next morning the robot only ran autonomous. When the 15 seconds were over, the robot would not respond to any operator controls. The best we were able to figure is somehow the code got corrupted (static?). Anyway, we went through two matches before we found the problem. Yes, look at all the battery problems mentioned, but also re-download your code to make sure it didn't get corrupted somehow.

[Joe Ross]

The IFI representative on the field can give you a lot of information about what happened, for example, low battery, low backup battery, code errors, or loss of radio.

For anyone, if your robot acts strangely, you should ask the IFI representative immediately if they saw anything. It may save you a lot of time later on.

[Josh Hambright]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

The IFI representative on the field can give you a lot of information about what happened, for example, low battery, low backup battery, code errors, or loss of radio.

For anyone, if your robot acts strangely, you should ask the IFI representative immediately if they saw anything. It may save you a lot of time later on.

I agree with Joe, the IFI guys are all really great to work with and are always very willing to help troubleshoot your problems. And sometimes its faulty equipment, but more often then not its simple problems like bad cables, disconnected cables, poor connections, bad batteries, bad charge, disconnected battery, inefficent mechanics, shorts, or other problems on our end of the stuff.

I'd say check all the stuff listed above with the batteries, and the shorts, and all that. And if your still having problems, track down one of the IFI guys and see what they cant do to help you.

I know from talking with the IFI reps at Boilermaker and MWR and observing their software in action, they can tell alot about the control system from their handy dandy laptop, everything from disconnected modems to a dead backup is easy to diagnois for them

[jdiwnab]

I suspect that the voltage isn't getting to the controller. Because we have been better about it with the 04 and 05 bots, I don't know what it would do, but the older bots (that didn't have the backup battery) would look like they were contenously reseting if the battery was low. I also know that sometimes the 120A breaker starts to cause massive resistance if used too much. it will try to disconect, but the bimatalic spring is worn out and causes more resistance. This volatage drop can cuase the controller to reset. The voltage drop could be anywere, but we found that the main breaker can go bad after extended use (don't try to break them in).