New Speed Controller Announced

[utlinebacker]

Originally Posted by ajlapp

Any chance you can supply a complete solid model of the housing? The iges file imports as a shell which can be troublesome to work with.

Is Luminary aware that it is common for teams to purchase many of these during a season? Teams that construct 2 complete robots may purchase 10-15 of these in a single season!

If these are purchased for non-FIRST applications will their full potential be available?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, I cannot supply a complete solid model at this time.

As for non-FRC apps, the full "raw potential" of the Jaguar is available. The short version of the story: you need CAN to enable Jaguar's non-FRC2009 features and we purposely stunted the Jaguar's CAN API development until after FRC2009 (for the purpose of FRC2009). So, the full potential is available, but the method to unleash these features (CAN) is purposely not yet so easy to use that a marketer like me could do it.

(Did I just cut myself down?)

Regards,
Scott

[s1900ahon]

Originally Posted by Richard McClellan

The specifications table states that the Fan On temperature is 42 degrees Celcius and the Fan Off temperature is 38 degrees Celcius

The last Q&A question states:

So my question is, does the fan come on when you start running a motor, or when the temperature hits 42 degrees, or both?

The fan turns on when you start running the motor.

The fan turns off when you stop the motor, 10 seconds pass, and the temperature is 38 degrees C or less.

The intent of this is to avoid wasting your battery at the start of a match. The fan (ebmpapst 412 FH) is spec'd at 0.8 W (66 mA 12 V). By extension, the fans of 8 motor controllers draw more than half an amp waiting for the match to start. Yeah, nothing compared to what the motors draw during the match, but little bit helps, and it was simple enough to implement (a MOSFET and some software).

[s1900ahon]

Originally Posted by Richard McClellan

According to the Getting Started guide, it is recommended to have 1/2" of empty space on the left and right side of each Jaguar speed controller. If you were to mount two Jaguars with their sides adjacent to each other, can this 1/2" space overlap, or would you need a total of 1" of space in between the two?

Yes, the 1/2" space can overlap.

[s1900ahon]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

The fact that a an overcurrent on a jaguar causes it to shutdown until a neutral signal is given scares me.

I've checked on this and the Jaguar does not require a neutral signal following a fault (anymore). The original prototype firmware of Jaguar did, but it was fixed a long time ago. The documentation is incorrect and will be changed shortly.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

With the victors, I've never seen one overcurrent in recent times. Heck, I've never had a 40 amp breaker pop during a match on any team I've been on in recent times.

Not surprising. A presentation at the 2008 FIRST Robotics Conference by Al Skierkiewicz says the breakers can function for a few seconds with up to 600% over current and almost 10 seconds up to 200% over current. See http://first.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/Firs...ierkiewicz.ppt

In testing at Luminary Micro, we drove a 150 lb robot rather mercilessly and didn't experience an over current fault. The only time an over current fault was generated was when the wheel of the robot was locked.

[utlinebacker]

Please note that we have just updated the Getting Started Guide (rev JAGUAR-GSG-02) at http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar.

Regards,
Scott

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by s1900ahon

I've checked on this and the Jaguar does not require a neutral signal following a fault (anymore). The original prototype firmware of Jaguar did, but it was fixed a long time ago. The documentation is incorrect and will be changed shortly.

Originally Posted by utlinebacker

Please note that we have just updated the Getting Started Guide (rev JAGUAR-GSG-02) at http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar.

Maybe this isn't the same thing that you were talking about, but the just-posted Getting Started guide says that when the Jaguar is reset (because of a tripped breaker), you need to return it to neutral before it will accept incoming PWM signals. This seems like AdamHeard's comment is therefore still valid.

[s1900ahon]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

Maybe this isn't the same thing that you were talking about, but the just-posted Getting Started guide says that when the Jaguar is reset (because of a tripped breaker), you need to return it to neutral before it will accept incoming PWM signals. This seems like AdamHeard's comment is therefore still valid.

The FAQ is (still) wrong and will be updated shortly.

[waialua359]

Can someone confirm that the jaguar sold by Digikey is in fact the ones we can order already in advance for this year's game? I couldnt find the post of the vendors, if I recall, that either offered them or had them at a discount.
Sorry, dont want to read 100+ posts to maybe find the info here.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Can someone confirm that the jaguar sold by Digikey is in fact the ones we can order already in advance for this year's game? I couldnt find the post of the vendors, if I recall, that either offered them or had them at a discount.
Sorry, dont want to read 100+ posts to maybe find the info here.

Here you go. http://sales.digikey.com/dkes/FirstR...ompetition.asp

From post #102. It took me two minutes to find it.

[utlinebacker]

Originally Posted by s1900ahon

The FAQ is (still) wrong and will be updated shortly.

Please note that we have just updated the Getting Started Guide (rev JAGUAR-GSG-04) at http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar to reflect this change.

Sorry for any confusion.

Regards,
Scott

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by billbo911

Here you go. http://sales.digikey.com/dkes/FirstR...ompetition.asp

From post #102. It took me two minutes to find it.

thanks for saving me the trouble.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by waialua359

thanks for saving me the trouble.

You are quite welcome
Mahalo

[Clinton Bolinger]

Does any one know if there is a way to monitor the state of the limit switches for debugging purposes? Maybe by adding a LED in series with the Limit switches or something?

-Oris-

[jskene]

This information is available on the data sheet available from Luminary:

http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/rdk-bdc.html

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Oris

Does any one know if there is a way to monitor the state of the limit switches for debugging purposes? Maybe by adding a LED in series with the Limit switches or something?

-Oris-

Your best bet is to get some double pole microswitches and wire one pole into the Jag, and the second pole into a digital sidecar or something else. When we have access to the CAN interface, the state will be monitored from there, but that's not happening this year.