Huge Problem

[elbuo]

Today I did the firmware upgrade for the driver station and the cRIO with the image tool.
Then we turned on everything to run a test.
We had to move places so we took everything apart...
So when we placed everything together again someone connected the 4 jaguars in the wrong side And they .....died I think....Smoke came out of one of them.

They turned everything back to the way it was SUPPOSED to be and all the lights were in yellow waiting for commands. So I connected the driver station with the Ethernet and nothing happened....

After the firmware upgrade you can't connect via wire? Only wireless or both?
Or is it the jaguar that is broken and we are totally screwed?

[rfolea]

Try replacing the Jaguar with a servo and see if that works. That will tell you where the problem may be ...

[elbuo]

That was our last idea but we had to go...But tomorrow that will be our first mission and I will report here the results

Wish me luck

[kamocat]

I've accidentally done this with a Victor 884, and it fried one set (one direction) of FETs, but the other worked just fine. They're probably useless as far as the drivetrain goes, but they might be useful for one-direction applications.

[vhcook]

The ethernet configuration should still work after the upgrade, since that is the required setup in the pits during competition to avoid interference with the playing field.

Based on the magic smoke, I strongly suspect you've fried at least one of them. If I were you, here's what I'd do:

1. Check your wiring again for both the control system and the Jaguars. Have someone else check it with you. It's pretty common to be unable to see a wiring problem once you've been staring at it for a while.

2. Retest one Jaguar at a time, pulling the breakers of all Jaguars not under test prior to powering up. If you have a multimeter, I'd suggest using it to confirm input and output voltages on the Jaguar are doing what you expect.

3. Substitute a suitable known good component for any Jaguars that fail step 2 to make sure you're getting a good input signal on the PWM cable.

Good luck!

[Jim E]

Perform a 'ping 'on all the ethernet components to verify the wireless links.

You can use the Victor in place of a jaguar to see if the jaguar is fried, but I think your initial assumption is correct if you saw the 'magic smoke'.

[elbuo]

Well then I hope it's only 1 and not all of them

But, when I connected the Ethernet to run a wired test to them correctly wired nothing seemed to happen and all the lights were on and they were fine...
Is it something wrong with the drive station also?


By the way...I haven't introduced myself because I haven't seen the right place to do it. I'm basically a robotics n00b. I was recruited by my leader because of my computer and electronic knowledge. My whole team has competed in VEX and they won by ALOT here in PR.
I was wondering if I could have some sort of mentor from here. Specifically in programming because this whole section was given to me :O And I basically don't have the less idea where to start XD
If someone wants to give me some help please send me a PM in here

[surferacf]

We had a similar problem with the Jaguars - We had some noobs help wire the test board, and on two of the Jags they connected the power to the output instead of the input. It took us a minute to realize why the breakers were instantly tripping and resetting on that side, but once we did it was too late. The Jags get the PWM signal and respond to the joystick movement, but no power is getting fed through the circuit. We did all appropriate tests with a multimeter, and found interestingly that the circuit was closing when the Jags were supposed to be sending power (as indicated by the continuity tester), but no 12v current. We're hoping that means it's just an internal fuse, otherwise we're going to have to drop $150 on new ones (for a team on a small budget, significant)

[kamocat]

As far as I know, these are completely unfused. If you are particularly good at soldiering, you could probably replace their MOSFETs, but expect an annoying plastic coating to get in your way. (I've no experience with dissassembling Jaguars, but I do know victor 884s are like this). Even though these are high-power MOSFETs, they are still static-sensitive.

[elbuo]

Originally Posted by surferacf

We're hoping that means it's just an internal fuse, otherwise we're going to have to drop $150 on new ones (for a team on a small budget, significant)

We have an extremely low budget
Hope your problem is not very complicated dude..