A Sad Wiring Reminder

[EricVanWyk]

I want to remind teams to double check that their WiFi gaming adapter is drawing power from the dedicated 12V supply on the PD. This is absolutely critical in ensuring that communications are reliable.

I had the unfortunate and painful experience of having to tell a team that the reason that their robot stopped moving during the final match of the elimination tournement was a mis-wiring, and that it was in fact not a field fault.

I feel absolutely awful for it, and I hope I don't have to do it again. Thank you for being so professional in accepting the unfortunate situation.

One thing that made it so hard to come to grips with is that they had made it through inspection and the entire competition with it wired as such without any problems. The WiFi will "work" down to 5V, most of the time. However, the 5V supplies intentionally cut out before the 12 and 24V supplies do, to ensure that the actuators are disabled so the cRIO and wireless can stay up. Additionally, the Linksys WGA600N has a known defect in that it doesn't have a fully functional watchdog: A momentary glitch can therefore kill it until power cycled. Note that their have been no reports of this happening while using the appropriate supply.

Please, do not let this happen to you. Double check your wiring.