Relay fault

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Posted by Steve Prairie.

Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.

Posted on 8/16/2000 5:35 PM MST



Hi everyone, I met with the engineers on our team the other night to run a check-up on our robot. We quickly found that one of our window motors that uses a relay, wasn't working, even though the relay was signaling properly. After checking the connection at the window motor, we examined the relay.
The terminal that joined the relay with the wire was very loose. And oddly enough, this was the second faulty relay we had this year. Has anyone else had this problem with the innovation FIRST relays?

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Posted by Mike Dubreuil.

Student on team #175, Buzz, from Enrico Fermi High School and UTC/Hamilton Sundstrand.

Posted on 8/16/2000 8:27 PM MST


In Reply to: Relay fault posted by Steve Prairie on 8/16/2000 5:35 PM MST:



$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#When Innovation FIRST Spikes are exposed to a ground, thir internal circuts will freeze to form an open circut. This will usually render the device into an uncontrolable +12 Volt state.
$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#This is a common problem for teams with a grounded frame. So you might want to check that first. Hope this helps.
$@#- Mike Dubreuil


: Hi everyone, I met with the engineers on our team the other night to run a check-up on our robot. We quickly found that one of our window motors that uses a relay, wasn't working, even though the relay was signaling properly. After checking the connection at the window motor, we examined the relay.
: The terminal that joined the relay with the wire was very loose. And oddly enough, this was the second faulty relay we had this year. Has anyone else had this problem with the innovation FIRST relays?

[archiver]

Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 8/17/2000 12:23 AM MST


In Reply to: Relay fault posted by Steve Prairie on 8/16/2000 5:35 PM MST:



: The terminal that joined the relay with the wire was very loose. And oddly enough, this was the second faulty relay we had this year. Has anyone else had this problem with the innovation FIRST relays?

I'm assuming that you're talking about the terminals that the motor and power supply connect to on the relay. I was talking to Dave from Innovation FIRST at the Great Lakes regional, after having one terminal simply fall off of a relay during shipping, and it turns out that the production company that they contracted out the actual fabrication of the relays and other components did not press the terminals into the boards as was requested before soldering the board, causing for loose relays. I would recommend contacting Innovation FIRST to get information on exchanging the defective relays for new ones.

Nate