cRio Power Light Not Turning on and no Activity

[CaptainKemp]

Hello all,

I'm from team 888 and our cRIO seems to me that it is broken in some way. When attached into our robot, the power light has stopped turning on and the cRio will not do anything. I have redone the cables to the cRio and checked voltage drops over the whole system. Everything seems as though it should work.

After all these tests didn't tell me anything, I took the cRio out of the robot and made an incredibly simple circuit by connecting power to the Power Distribution Board and connecting the 24V out into the cRio. I turned it on and nothing happened. I changed out the connectors to see if they were the problem and tried again. Nothing.

This is my last attempt at finding a solution until I reccomend to my coach that we either send the cRio out to be fixed or to just by a whole new cRio.

Please Help Me!

Thanks,
Morton
Team 888

[Jason Law]

Do you have a picture of your set-up? A picture may help us see something that might cause it to not work, as opposed to a limited description.

[CaptainKemp]

As you can see I broke it down to the barebones set up to see if the power would turn on. If you cannot see the lights: All lights one power board are on and all lights on cRio are off

[Jason Law]

Did you try running a program? Is it possible that the connection to the lights was loose, but the cRIO is still working? Also, I can't see it in the picture, but i'm assuming you wired the positive and negative correctly (from the PD to the cRIO)?

[CaptainKemp]

While connected to the robot in the same configuration it would not respond to anything even by tether

And yes, red to red, black to black

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by CaptainKemp

Attachment 9528

As you can see I broke it down to the barebones set up to see if the power would turn on. If you cannot see the lights: All lights one power board are on and all lights on cRio are off

Silly questions, but I have to ask. Are you certain the correct set of terminals are being used on both ends of the +24vdc cable. Is your polarity correct?

[CaptainKemp]

There's no silly questions on here bilbo, I'm looking for any solution at this point.

But yes I checked the configuration for the power connectors to make sure that wasn't happening.

[Mark McLeod]

There was a team that had this happen at Brunswick Eruption this Fall.

Theirs was fixed by following the cRIO cleaning instructions.

If the cRIO remains inoperable then I'd suggest contacting the NI Tech help line (middle of the page).
There is an internal fuse that could be blown. Only NI can replace that though.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by CaptainKemp

There's no silly questions on here bilbo, I'm looking for any solution at this point.

But yes I checked the configuration for the power connectors to make sure that wasn't happening.

One last thing to check is that you don't have a bunch of debris inside the cRio that might be shorting out the power bus. Try vacuuming out the cRio and check it again.

If you know for certain that you have +24 vdc at the power input to the cRio, as measured with a VOM, then there is a good chance an internal fuse has blown.

Arrgg, Mark beat me to it.

[DonRotolo]

Last year after Champs we crated a perfectly functional robot. When it arrived in NJ the cRio was dead as you described. We cleaned it and everything, no luck.

NI's repair service was absolutely fantastic in repairing it quickly and now it works perfectly again (and, in this case, the repair was free). That's one reason why we use their stuff at work.

So, "What Mark Said"

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Last year after Champs we crated a perfectly functional robot. When it arrived in NJ the cRio was dead as you described. We cleaned it and everything, no luck.

NI's repair service was absolutely fantastic in repairing it quickly and now it works perfectly again (and, in this case, the repair was free).

Don, may I ask what they fixed?

[kamocat]

Originally Posted by CaptainKemp

Hello all,

I'm from team 888 and our cRIO seems to me that it is broken in some way. When attached into our robot, the power light has stopped turning on and the cRio will not do anything. I have redone the cables to the cRio and checked voltage drops over the whole system. Everything seems as though it should work.

After all these tests didn't tell me anything, I took the cRio out of the robot and made an incredibly simple circuit by connecting power to the Power Distribution Board and connecting the 24V out into the cRio. I turned it on and nothing happened. I changed out the connectors to see if they were the problem and tried again. Nothing.

This is my last attempt at finding a solution until I reccomend to my coach that we either send the cRio out to be fixed or to just by a whole new cRio.

Please Help Me!

Thanks,
Morton
Team 888

We had the same problem.
Know this:
National Instruments will fix your cRIO for free if you do an RMA. They will return it within two weeks of receiving it.
Your issue is probably dust or a blown fuse, but if you're uncertain, you can ship it down and they will fix it for you.

It's unfortunate this happened right before build season.

[mikets]

There is a fuse inside the cRIO. It could have been blown. We had two cRIOs that had their fuses blown last season. We called NI and arranged to have two replacement cRIOs shipped 2nd day to us. After we received them, we shipped the broken ones back to them. Of course they took down our credit card number in case we didn't ship them back. If you want to confirm this is indeed the cause, open up the cRIO by removing the screws on the bottom side of the cRIO and you will find a white surface mounted fuse near the dip switches. Put an ohm meter across it. If it doesn't read zero ohm, it's blown. Caution: disconnect power before you do the ohm check.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Morton,
On the off chance that a Crio module has taken a hike, try removing all of them and then repower the Crio. This has been asked earlier but you did not respond. Are you measuring 24 volts at the input connector of the Crio with the Crio connected?

I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to remind everyone that the Crio chassis/enclosure is tied to the negative lead of the battery. If hard mounted to the robot frame, the frame is now connected to the battery. Under FRC rules this is not allowed. When building your robot this season, remember to insulate both the Crio chassis and the camera if you use one.

[CaptainKemp]

I have checked the voltage drop across the connector to the cRIO and it was 24V.

When I get a chance today I will go through and try your idea of removing all the modules. Thanks Al.

Just to let everyone know. I will probably be sending the cRIO into NI soon so that I will have it working by the time we need it in build season.

Thanks for all of your help