Broken programming port on RC

[jsfinne]

Everyone has done this. We keep a supply of replacement DB9's. A little careful surgery and you are as good as new and, besides, time is short. If you need a DB9, contact me and we can make arrangements. I am local to JPS.

Jim Finne
jsfinne@optonline.net
Team 136, Plainfield. NJ

[neoshaakti]

thank you all for your support
in the next day or two Ill post a picture of our RC
hopefully it will be fixed when I do

[frc2008]

Originally Posted by jsfinne

Everyone has done this. We keep a supply of replacement DB9's. A little careful surgery and you are as good as new and, besides, time is short. If you need a DB9, contact me and we can make arrangements. I am local to JPS.

Jim Finne
jsfinne@optonline.net
Team 136, Plainfield. NJ

Jim,

can you send me your phone number on viswanatham@gmail.com. I will contact you and let me know when can I call you. I am awake for this tonite and want to finish it tomorrow morning after getting the part.

[Mr. Freeman]

I've never really understood people's obsessions with tightening the screws on those cables. Just because they're there does not mean they should be used. I'm just waiting for IFI to make an RC & OI that has a connector with a magnet next to it and a cable interface with little to no friction, like the new apple laptop power cords. Tip over it and the cable goes flying, but the laptop stays where it should.

[ay2b]

Originally Posted by Mr. Freeman

I've never really understood people's obsessions with tightening the screws on those cables.

I've found that the solution to this, at least in some cases, is to remove the screws from the cables.

On the other hand, I firmly believe that you SHOULD screw in the cable that connects the radio to the RC.

[whitetiger0990]

If the our programming cable is somewhere where it can be tripped over, I make sure to wrap it around something. When it gets pulled it tightened around whatever it's wrapped around instead of putting a whole lot of stress on the port. Several years ago one had been broken, so I've made sure to keep it more protected and away from direct strain.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by ay2b

On the other hand, I firmly believe that you SHOULD screw in the cable that connects the radio to the RC.

I'd normally agree. I did just visited a team that ripped out their radio port connector though...

In several cases of destroyed RC DB9 connectors that I've seen, the culprit wasn't screwed in connectors, but just a bad angle that put a lot of side pressure on the connector. For instance, when the robot took off the cable was stretched back lengthwise over the RC and the connector was yanked up and back.

In all cases I'd recommend strain reliefs for DB9 cables, power lines, PWM-style connectors, pig-tails, etc. connected to delicate parts of the RC.

[d25inferno]

Hey guys although we got our programming port working for the regionals we believe it is malfunctioning again. When we try to connect w. our robot we get an error message on EasyC that our programming light isn't yellow when it is. Th computer can "see" that the RC is connect, it just cant access the RC since it thinks the button wasnt pressed. If any teams have had this problem before and know a solution Team 2554 would be much obliged. Thanks!

[tdlrali]

Connect your RC to your laptop, and open up the terminal window in ifi-loader (or any other serial terminal). Hit the reset button a bunch of times, then put the robot controller into programming mode (hold the button). Do you see an "IFI>" prompt printed to the terminal?