Who did NOT have comm problems in Waterloo regional?

[Pat Fairbank]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

Great regional from a field management standpoint. Does anyone know just how far ahead of schedule the event ran at times? I remember being called up to matches about 30 minutes before their scheduled start.

At the best point, before the Friday lunch break, FMS was reporting that we were running 20 minutes ahead. I don't believe that there was any point during the qualification schedule (which was on an 8-minute cycle) where we were behind.

One measure that the field/inspection team took that helped greatly was swapping out the few teams who were using the newer WET610N radios with WGA600Ns from spare parts, since not only do the newer radios take longer to sync up to the field, they have to do so before any of the old radios can be powered on (otherwise, the old ones lose their connection once the new ones link up).

Credit also should go to the FTA, Sean O'Grady, and the FTAA, Scott Kennedy, for quickly diagnosing on-field problems and making sure all teams were connected properly to the field before matches were started.

[Azores]

Hey guys,

We aren't 100% sure at this point but it seems we lost communications at Waterloo likely due to a power spike in the robot or something along those lines causing our gaming adapter to reset itself and not link to the field. After the second eliminations match we noticed a burning smell and realized that our back left Jaguar and its corresponding CIM were much hotter than usual and far hotter than the other three Jags and CIMs on the bot. We suspect that we either had a short somewhere, although we haven't located any, or we may have just stressed our drivetrain system beyond its limits - maybe we should have just toned down the physical play a little bit?

And again, very sorry for the entire situation in the eliminations teams 610 and 1535. I won't bother typing it all out because you know what I'm talking about anyway.

[ideasrule]

Originally Posted by Azores

We aren't 100% sure at this point but it seems we lost communications at Waterloo likely due to a power spike in the robot or something along those lines causing our gaming adapter to reset itself and not link to the field. After the second eliminations match we noticed a burning smell and realized that our back left Jaguar and its corresponding CIM were much hotter than usual and far hotter than the other three Jags and CIMs on the bot. We suspect that we either had a short somewhere, although we haven't located any, or we may have just stressed our drivetrain system beyond its limits - maybe we should have just toned down the physical play a little bit?

I'm just as puzzled as you are. Are you sure the power cord to the gaming adapter wasn't loose, that the connection between the cRIO and gaming adapter is good, and that the your robot battery was fully charged? The adapter reboots itself if the voltage gets low enough.

And again, very sorry for the entire situation in the eliminations teams 610 and 1535. I won't bother typing it all out because you know what I'm talking about anyway.

It's OK. You had a good robot, and we were very proud to be picked by you. Congrats on getting the rookie all-star award, and hope you do well in Atlanta!

Thanks also to 1535. Congratulations to 2056, 1114, and 298; your alliance was unbeatable, and 2056 & 1114 have a great chance of doing well in the world championships.

[Azores]

Yea, I tried powering the robot on and jostling the gaming adapter's power cable on either end and it didn't shut down even temporarily, and the ethernet cable between gaming adapter and cRIO seemed solid as well. The battery started off at around 12.4V, which is generally how high our chargers get them, before the second match IIRC so it wasn't a dead battery.

EDIT: Oh yea, we did notice our voltage dropping incredibly low under load though - as in from 12V to 8V just from driving forward at full speed with our compressor and vacuum both not running. It was enough to significantly dim our RSL. So we suspect that we probably damaged a CIM by overstressing it with how many times we would have stalled it, and it's drawing too much current.

[ideasrule]

Originally Posted by Azores

EDIT: Oh yea, we did notice our voltage dropping incredibly low under load though - as in from 12V to 8V just from driving forward at full speed with our compressor and vacuum both not running. It was enough to significantly dim our RSL. So we suspect that we probably damaged a CIM by overstressing it with how many times we would have stalled it, and it's drawing too much current.

I think you've solved it. The bridge reboots when the voltage drops below 5.5 V; the cRIO reboots when it drops below 4.5 V. What could have happened was: a) the motors draw a lot of current even when not stalled, dropping voltage to 8 V, b) the motors stalled, c) the compressor/vacuum drew even more current, dropping voltage still further, and d) a CIM got damaged, lowering the battery's voltage below 5.5V and causing the bridge to reboot.

[Azores]

Yea, I wasn't at yesterday's meeting to troubleshoot everything, but today I started tearing apart the Toughbox and removing the CIMs from it. Running the one that overheated on its own outside of a Toughbox, we noticed that it makes a bit of a clicking noise and appears to run slower (we haven't measured this so it might be just an illusion).

We have a new issue though, which is in this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?p=945153

[Azores]

Yea, that's basically the solution we've come up with. We have a new issue though, which is in this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?p=945153