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Unread 10-10-2007, 15:38
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Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

I partially found the problem. My power relay's contacts were stuck closed because my connection pushed the contact up, but... that doesn't explain why it would turn off then after a few minutes, it would turn back on unless the copper connections were bending slightly after it cooled down.
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Unread 10-10-2007, 15:45
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Al Skierkiewicz Al Skierkiewicz is offline
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Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

Ryan,
When linking to your schematic the connection is refused so I can't be sure of what you are doing.
As to the power relay, did you solder directly to the relay contacts? Often this melts the base material and leaves enough slop in the contact to move around with heat/cool and vibration. Add to this a few errant metal shavings or whiskers and you end up with a contact that you can't really see but is there none the less. The best way to use realys is to add a socket. The socket is made for soldering and the relay merely plugs into it. Relays are notorious for acting weird especially on low current signals.
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Unread 10-10-2007, 16:21
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Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz View Post
Ryan,
When linking to your schematic the connection is refused so I can't be sure of what you are doing.
As to the power relay, did you solder directly to the relay contacts? Often this melts the base material and leaves enough slop in the contact to move around with heat/cool and vibration. Add to this a few errant metal shavings or whiskers and you end up with a contact that you can't really see but is there none the less. The best way to use realys is to add a socket. The socket is made for soldering and the relay merely plugs into it. Relays are notorious for acting weird especially on low current signals.
I didn't solder it at all. I used female connections and it doesn't look melted at all. I think it may just be a defective connection. Here are the pictures I uploaded to facebook since my server doesn't want to cooperate:


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Unread 11-10-2007, 07:40
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Al Skierkiewicz Al Skierkiewicz is offline
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Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

Ryan,
Are you using the backup battery input to the RC? Since the relay outputs of the RC are intended for Spike connections, I am not sure what the actual signal output is. They may actually send a keep alive output which could turn the relay driver on. The Spike input circuit is pretty complex and has a lot of input filtering. I suspect that the RC is actually triggering the relay drive transistor. Also, the relay output only has to rise to 0.6 volts to turn the relay driver on in this configuration. You could simply try a 1k resistor in series with the base of the transistor and I would add a 0.1mfd cap base to emitter to quench any noise and see what happens.
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Unread 11-10-2007, 21:14
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Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

Actually all seems to be working well just after replacing the relay. I got my charger connected and it seems to work perfectly. I only have the LEDs and sensors to connect now. I like how it is wrapping up and I hope to post some pictures of the spaghetti I have made into my project. TOO MANY SIGNAL WIRES!!!!! Oh well, as long as it doesn't break I'll be fine, and if it does, I just need to set aside a day to fix it . Thanks for all the help. If I encounter any trouble with the transistors, I will do what you said and add a resistor and a capacitor to the transistors. I actually found the Spike signal system to be very very simple. They output 5V (my personal favorite voltage for transistors and LEDs) It switches using IFI's seemingly favorite H bridge. If you put both fwd and rev to 1, then it outputs positive signals on the spike outputs, and they are both 0, then it's a negative signal. So what I've done is take like fwd and rev to turn individual spikes to only forward since accidentally reversing them will fry some things. Hopefully this all makes sense. If there are any questions for me, please don't hesitate to ask.
__________________
Taking a break from mentoring for a few years. (Is that allowed?!?)

Controls Mentor
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Previous teams:
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Garnet Squadron, FRC 4901
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Unread 12-10-2007, 07:33
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Al Skierkiewicz Al Skierkiewicz is offline
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Posts: 10,798
Al Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond reputeAl Skierkiewicz has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Project Questions about Programming and Electrical

Glad you got it working the way you want. I love when that happens.
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________________________
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