Crio-Sidecar

[Josh987]

Our team is experiencing some problems, it seems, with the sidecar or maybe the crio. The problem is that when the motors start to go somewhat forward maybe 50% or so the 5v light on the DS goes off and the all the jags turn slow yellow. We are using 4 wheel drive, and after much trouble shooting we are certain it is not the code. We have figured out though, if you unplug any of the two jags the problem goes away. One other thing we have noticed is that if we toggle the disable/enable button after it stops working the 5v light turns on again, but the same problem will occur. My team doesn't know where to go with this, any help is very much appreciated. The first thread started out in programming because we originally thought it was a code issue. Here is the link http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=83281

[Alan Anderson]

What do the other power LEDs show you? This sounds very much like your Digital Sidecar is not getting 12 volt power. Check its power input to make sure the wires are correctly connected to a 20 Amp circuit from the Power Distribution board. Correctly connected includes the right polarity (plus to plus, minus to minus) and the right amount of insulation stripped so that the Wago connection is made properly.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Josh987

Our team is experiencing some problems, it seems, with the sidecar or maybe the crio. The problem is that when the motors start to go somewhat forward maybe 50% or so the 5v light on the DS goes off and the all the jags turn slow yellow. We are using 4 wheel drive, and after much trouble shooting we are certain it is not the code. We have figured out though, if you unplug any of the two jags the problem goes away. One other thing we have noticed is that if we toggle the disable/enable button after it stops working the 5v light turns on again, but the same problem will occur. My team doesn't know where to go with this, any help is very much appreciated. The first thread started out in programming because we originally thought it was a code issue. Here is the link http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=83281

Sounds to me like your battery is low. When you draw high current from your 4 cims the battery voltage will drop. If the battery voltage is too low then the cRIO will go into protect and disable everything until the voltage rises again.

[Josh987]

We used a charge battery and switched to another charged battery just in case.

[RyanN]

Make sure the jumpers for the 5V supply aren't in for the Jaguars. I don't know if it will make any difference, but they certainly don't need to be there, and the Jaguar's should have the 5V connection open internally. You should only use them for servos. This should make no difference, but it's worth a shot...

Make sure all the connections are tight. Disconnect everything from the side car, then reconnect all of it. Do this for the cRIO Module as well. Check the 12V supply as already suggested. Make sure the PWM Cables are in the correct way.

If none of that works, I would begin thinking about ordering a new Sidecar as it shouldn't cut out like it is.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Josh987

We are using 4 wheel drive, and after much trouble shooting we are certain it is not the code.

Could we get more details on the drivetrain? Specifically the following:

Length between wheels?
Width between wheels?
Type (KOP, roughtop, wedgetop, etc.) and size (6", 8", etc.) of all 4 wheels?
Motors? (eg. 2CIMS, 4CIMS, etc.)
Gearbox ratio?
Sprocket ratio between gearbox and wheels?

If you are running a 4 wheel drive with all traction wheels that is much longer than it is wide you may be drawing enough current to draw the battery down to a very low voltage. Can you see what the battery voltage is doing on the Driver Station when this behavior occurs?

[Racer26]

Is your DSC connected to 12V power directly from the PDB into the WAGO connector on it? Alan was alluding to a problem that can arise where the DSC gets enough juice to run through the NI module in the cRIO, but when you start changing the outputs, it browns out, which sounds like EXACTLY whats happening here.

[Josh987]

The problem was we had the power wires reversed. After that everything worked well. Thanks very much for all the help.