Troubleshooting solenoid breakout

[Jason Law]

Originally Posted by DuaneB

Our solenoids aren't activating and we would like some suggestions for troubleshooting the problem. The NI 9472 is in cRio slot 8 and our LabVIEW code is configured for slot 8. The breakout board is wired for 24V from the cRio power connector on the PDB, as shown in the FIRST 24V solenoid wiring diagram, and we're using 24V solenoids. The power indicator LED on the back of the breakout board is lit, but none of the 8 LEDs on the 9472 light when activating solenoids. I measured ~0V across the end of the cable connected to the breakout whether a solenoid was activated or not. We tried moving the 9472 to slot 7 and updating the code, but got the same results. I tried searching CD but didn't see any threads specifically relevant. We would appreciate any troubleshooting advice you may offer. Thanks.

Are you talking about the solenoids for the cylinders? If so, we had a similar problem yesterday and we spent 15 additional minutes blaming our programmers. It turns out that our FESTO solenoid valve was somehow broken inside, even though it was brand new. We replaced it for a different solenoid (SMC), and it ended up working. (On a side note, our spike relay for the compressor wasn't working, nor the DigitalSidecar, nor the solenoid breakout, and finally the solenoid valve... it took us most of the day to figure out what was wrong and replace it)