SIGNAL LIGHT WONT WORK

[samir13k]

when you wire the signal light, do you have the jumper wire in there? you need to run positive to one of the outsides, negative on the middle one, and positive on the other outside... you can do this by soldering the positive to split into two, or by just putting a jumper wire from one side to the other...

here comes cheesy paint drawing:

[kick3nitx360]

Yes, we do have the jumper cable on the signal light. However, its not so much the actual light that we are worried about, the little LED signal light that is in the digital sidecar doesnt even blink.

[Mr. Lim]

Sounds like a bad DSC...

Can you grab last year's DSC and swap it out to test?

If this one is bad, open it up, clean it out, and maybe lightly touch the ICs surrounding the RSL connector to see if anything is getting excessively hot while powered on.

To be honest, I don't even remember whether the little LED near the RSL connector is supposed to blink in unison with the actual RSL.

Can anyone here confirm?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

There is an LED on the sidecar that should blink in unison with the RSL. It will function without the RSL even connected. However, there is a "fuse" (possible solid state fuse) in series with the drive circuit. It is possible that the fuse has opened/failed. Please try a different DSC before we go much further.

[samir13k]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

Sounds like a bad DSC...

To be honest, I don't even remember whether the little LED near the RSL connector is supposed to blink in unison with the actual RSL.

Can anyone here confirm?

Yes, there is a little green LED on the DSC right next to the output for the RSL power leads.

I'm starting to run out of ideas here. Theres a rare possibility that you have two bad DSC's maybe? it sounds like you have two control systems, maybe build the benchtop system with the second system, and see if that works?

It also looks like you are running some pretty thin wire to power your DSC. Maybe try something thicker? i believe that i use 16AWG on ours. I reccomend doing the same thing on your Analog Breakout. The wire you are using on that is meant for pneumatics.

[Jon Stratis]

When you try a different DSC as Al suggests, i would make one more suggestion - make the wiring as simple as possible to test it. By that, i mean keep the DSC off the robot, run two power wires to the PDB and the connector to the cRio, and that's it. then power on the robot and let it boot up. That way, you can be absolutely positive none of your other connections are causing any problems.

If the LED on the DSC works in that situation, start making other connections, checking the LED at every step. If the LED dies at some point, at least you know what connection it was!

My gut instinct says you have/had a short in the wiring for the signal light that blew the fuse Al mentioned... even if that short was later fixed, without the fuse the light still won't work!

[peter1626]

I was just wondering if it could possible be my cRIO image. Is there any way I can program the light to blink with labview just to eliminate the chance that it is a hardware problem

[peter1626]

We have tried different modules in the cRIO, 4 DSC, 2 cables from the cRIO and 2 lights. We have re-wired AGAIN this time with the wire you recommended however this still did not work! > I am currently in the process of updating and will let you know if that works!

[Jon Stratis]

Peter, lets go back to the beginning here, because I'm suspecting more and more the fuse Al mentioned, and a short somewhere in your wiring. If, for example, you wired up the signal light incorrectly, such that it permitted such a short, and successively tried all 4 side cars with this same wiring, it's possible you blew the fuse in all 4 side cars. Even if you had fixed it (the second signal light you tried), because they were already blown it wouldn't help.

Where is your team located? It could be handy to have another team nearby assist with some debugging. For example, if their signal light works, you could try replacing their side car with yours - if the light now doesn't work, then the problem is in the side car. If the light does work, then we know the side car is not the issue and can start tracing it back from there.

[kick3nitx360]

We only tried the first DSC with the signal light we didnt try the other ones. However, we are located in Metchen New Jersey and would be very happy to have another team come out and help us with this urgent issue. We would also be willing to go to anyone near by. We are all at our whits end and really need the help.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Peter,
Try another DSC without inserting the RSL connector. You should be able to see the LED on the board flashing when disabled and steady when enabled. It is entirely possible to have a shorted RSL that will hold the LED on the board in an off state. Turn off the robot before you remove the connector, count to ten and then turn the power on. It this is solid state fuse, it will not reset until the power has been turned off. If that works, use a VOM to test the connector and RSL wiring. It should not be less than 500 ohms in both directions.

[chris1592]

Are we talking about the orange beacon?

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by chris1592

Are we talking about the orange beacon?

Yes.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by chris1592

Are we talking about the orange beacon?

Yes...though we're also talking about the little green LED on the Digital Sidecar that blinks along with it.

[Mark McLeod]

I do have to say...

Most of the programmers think of the RSL as the LED on the Digital Sidecar, because it's all we have until the electricians wire the Big Yellow Light (BYL).
Most of the electricians think of it as the big yellow light connected to it as a repeater, because they get to wire it.

We all know it is both...

It's labeled "RSL" on the Digital Sidecar.