Camera power/comm problems disable the DSC

[rwood359]

I haven't seen this posted before, but I ran into this problem today.
I had been testing traction control which did not enable the camera. I switched to run the 2 color example and the DSC would not go enabled. The download completed correctly, the DS said enabled and Dashboard said enabled, but the DSC was giving a slow blink that the NI documentation says means that the cRIO is disabled. After some debugging, I found that the power connector for the camera had come loose. I plugged it in, the camera came ready, and the DSC went enabled. After some further testing, I found that and power or comm problem with the camera will disable the DSC. I don't believe that this is the intended mode of operation. Losing power or comm with the camera should not shut down the robot.
I'm going to post this on the FIRST fourms as well.

Also note that the battery voltage was showing on the DS and in Dashboard. It looks like cRIO doesn't go enabled until the camera is operational.

[EricVanWyk]

I was having a similar problem this weekend. I think we fixed it by adding a 10ms delay in the camera loop AND feeding the watchdog.

The 10ms delay allows other code to execute. The watchdog enables the DSC.

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

I was having a similar problem this weekend. I think we fixed it by adding a 10ms delay in the camera loop AND feeding the watchdog.

The 10ms delay allows other code to execute. The watchdog enables the DSC.

I don't think that it is the watchdog timer. If it were, the DSC would not go enabled when the camera comes ready. I was running the stock two color camera demo v1. I looked at it with highlight execution enabled while the camera was OFF during startup. I believe that the lower timed loop was running, but the main loop was not. The main loop feeds the timer, but I think the the program is hung in the startup code and doesn't get to the main loop until the camera is ready.

If you pull the ethernet cable or power to the camera while the program is running the DSC will go to blink (it may be fast blink) reinstalling the cable re-enables the DSC. I'll try a delay when I go in today to see if it makes a difference.