cRIO not turning on!!!

[MHSrobotics2853]

Our team has setup the power supply to the compactRIO, but the LED indicator does not light up. The cRIO we are using was working properly earlier with the same setup, but not now! We have tested the wiring with a mulitmeter, and got a reading of 24 volts. Is the cRIO broken or is there some way to fix it?


Thank You,
Mililani High School, Team 2853
Mililani, HI

[seannoseworthy]

Make sure that the polarity of your wiring is correct, you can find the wiring diagram here

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by MHSrobotics2853

Our team has setup the power supply to the compactRIO, but the LED indicator does not light up. The cRIO we are using was working properly earlier with the same setup, but not now! We have tested the wiring with a mulitmeter, and got a reading of 24 volts. Is the cRIO broken or is there some way to fix it?


Thank You,
Mililani High School, Team 2853
Mililani, HI

First off, check the wiring while it's live. See if you have 24V on the cRIO end of the power cable. Check for metal shavings in places they shouldn't be. Unplug everything from the cRIO including all the cards, ethernet, etc... Double check the wiring as someone may have changed it while you were away. That's all I can think of. If you have another cRIO to try, do that.

[Mark McLeod]

How fresh is your battery?
Try it with a battery you know is charged.

You are measuring the voltage at the cRIO end of the wires?

[MHSrobotics2853]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

How fresh is your battery?
Try it with a battery you know is charged.

You are measuring the voltage at the cRIO end of the wires?

Yes, the 24 V was measured at the cRIO end.

[etphonehome]

is your cRIO electrically isolated from the chassis? if no, is/has anything elsewhere in your electrical system shorted through the chassis? if yes, you probably blew your cRIO. if this happened, you've got 2 options: send it back to National Instruments, or void your warranty, take off the back, and check and see if the fuse (located between the serial port and slot 1 of the modular breakouts if i remember correctly) is blown. If the fuse blew, you can solder another on top and it may be good as new. im not gonna endorse the voiding the warranty option, but it is an option if you think you fried it and dont want to wait for national instruments to fix the cRIO for you.

if you're pretty sure you didn't blow your cRIO, i don't know what could be going on.

[EricVanWyk]

Originally Posted by etphonehome

is your cRIO electrically isolated from the chassis? if no, is/has anything elsewhere in your electrical system shorted through the chassis? if yes, you probably blew your cRIO. if this happened, you've got 2 options: send it back to National Instruments, or void your warranty, take off the back, and check and see if the fuse (located between the serial port and slot 1 of the modular breakouts if i remember correctly) is blown. If the fuse blew, you can solder another on top and it may be good as new. im not gonna endorse the voiding the warranty option, but it is an option if you think you fried it and dont want to wait for national instruments to fix the cRIO for you.

if you're pretty sure you didn't blow your cRIO, i don't know what could be going on.

For the love of warranties, please don't do this.

[etphonehome]

yeah, thats the i wouldnt really recommend this part. but one of our mentors knew how and did it perfectly. it was a few days before ship... we needed it working again.

[MHSrobotics2853]

Originally Posted by etphonehome

is your cRIO electrically isolated from the chassis? if no, is/has anything elsewhere in your electrical system shorted through the chassis? if yes, you probably blew your cRIO. if this happened, you've got 2 options: send it back to National Instruments, or void your warranty, take off the back, and check and see if the fuse (located between the serial port and slot 1 of the modular breakouts if i remember correctly) is blown. If the fuse blew, you can solder another on top and it may be good as new. im not gonna endorse the voiding the warranty option, but it is an option if you think you fried it and dont want to wait for national instruments to fix the cRIO for you.

if you're pretty sure you didn't blow your cRIO, i don't know what could be going on.

thank you for replying...

Do you know who long the warranty for the cRIO is? Our team bought the cRIO last year for the 2009 competition.

[Greg McKaskle]

One other thing you may be able to try is to use a wall adapter for the cRIO. They didn't ship in the kit, but if you received one with your other purchase, or can find one through a mentor or a loaner from a sales branch.

If the cRIO works with the wall adapter, it is an issue with the PD, battery, or something on that end. If it doesn't work with the adapter, time to call NI support, get a replacement, etc.

Greg McKaskle

[etphonehome]

that's worth a shot, but I've seen this situation 3 times so far, and if the power light doesn't go on with 24 v from the distribution board in each instance there was an electrical problem with the cRIO itself. i want to say the cRIO warranty is for a few years, but i couldn't find the FIRST warranty online. the "extended" warranty of the consumer version can be purchased for 2-5 years i think, so you may still be under warranty. i think a copy of the warranty came with the cRIO kit last year.

i wouldn't open the cRIO up unless you're sure you don't have warranty coverage anymore, whether it expired or someone voided it.

[MHSrobotics2853]

Thank You for all your replies. We tested our cRIO on other team's electrical system and something is definitly bust internally. Luckily, National Instruments is giving us a new one if we give them our busted one so that they can try to fix it.

Team 2853

[rjmah]

Thanks for this post. It saved our butts. So close to ship date our CRIO was dead and probably hard to find a loaner at this stage. We found an aluminum shaving that had fallen in the serial port. FYI the 2A surface mount fuse part is:

Newark.com Part # 12J2838 mfgr. LITTELFUSE

[Jon Jack]

You may also want to check to make sure the power connector to the cRIO is connected properly. I've seen several instances where a cRIO does not turn on, it's because of a lose wire.

[rjmah]

Thanks for that last word. Yes, definitely check the 24 VDC supply first then even after opening the case check for continuity on F2. Ours was open and the aluminum pigtail shaving obviously resting between the fuse and the serial port shell inside.