Classmate Static Discharge Susceptibility

[Mark McLeod]

Similar symptoms I saw this weekend were tracable to under-powered USB devices. All Comms are good, but the robot doesn't respond to the driver controls.

These are the USB mistakes I saw teams making:

• If you are using the PSOC it is usually the biggest power-hog. That must be plugged directly into the Classmate.
• The USB hub should be plugged into the other Classmate USB connector and the joysticks into that.
• If you have a real power-hungry game controller - lights/vibrate/etc. - that needs to be plugged directly into the Classmate too. So you may have to choose between the PSOC and any fancy game controller.
• The Stop switch they gave us in the KOP is NOT used at competition. Unplug the power drain to run those color changing LEDs.

It seems the hub is a major failure point and it's difficult to predict if a team will have trouble with it or not. Bring a different model to competition as a safety backup and be mentally prepared to repatch your USB connections. Face it, you'll have nothing better to do if your robot is non-functional...