Death of our cRIO, and some suggestions for NI

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Today at the Detroit district event our cRIO suffered a slow decline to its ultimate death. Actually, I don't think it's completely dead, but at least the power connector doesn't work leaving it dead for all intents and purposes. The slow decline (intermittent problems) caused us to sit stationary for 20-30 seconds in a match or two, and the death caused us to sit still for the entire match after our first kick (the shock inflicted the final blow).

That sounds familiar. A team at the Boilermaker Regional had pretty much the same symptoms. After they replaced their cRIO, I took a close look at the "bad" one with one of their students. There was a small crumb of aluminum in one of the unused module connectors, underneath the plastic cap. I don't know if they got around to testing it again, but I suspect it now will work fine.

Suggestion: look for debris that might be shorting a power connection.