Calibrating Victors

[SpaceOsc]

Originally Posted by Denman

sorry, i said i would be back in half an hour... then someone managed to make the battery catch fire.... (the wire we are using for our forklift is metallic, and it fell off onto the battery terminals...........) luckily it didn't damage anything.


Al, i had a look, and yes, the speed controllers are wired up into the motors So i suppose i just remove them and wire the speed controllers directly to the motors.
And thus it is nothing to do with "putting a back current on the speed controlllers (ref our mentor ))

That Lil Stunt happend to my Buddy John, during competetions he was tired and almost falling asleep and pulled a metallic Winch Cable we installed and the wire bridged both terminals of our battery, a powerful flash occured and he was thrown away(not by the power but by fear lol) and the wire turned chard black and split in the mid point been the contact point. no smoke no fire, just a broken winch cable (Heres a tip about metallic wires, u can crimp them back together if u do it right)

as for your problem

from what i can tell on this thread this is your setup

Battery = Breaker = Fuse Box = 40/30 amp Fuse = Victor 88* = Spike = Motor

which is Incorrect, when running a motor (drill, CIMs, FP .. etc) you can only have Victors running and taking the load of your motors.

the Correct Circuit would look like

Battery = Breaker = Fuse Box = 40/30 Amp Fuse = Victor 88* = Motor

Spikes are only to be used on Things that require only on and off commands such as your Compressor , Silenoids, and some of the lower end Motors that dont require variable speed.

That Setup Is non Negotiable, despite what may feel to be a better setup, or more efficient Short Cuts , such is Using Higher Gauge wires to lower resistance, or using the incorrect fuses to allow more power to flow in, are unstable practices that may back fire at unpredictable times, FIRST knows whats it is doing and has its guide lines reflecting functionality and safety all in one. If your going to be showing Rookies how to setup electronics you must make sure they learn it the FIRST way first, then they can think outside of the box all they like while following the rules.

as for other aspects that of victor that have nothing to do with anythign else on the board that u might wanna consider for your Solution

Brake/ Coast - lil Jumper on the Victor (If im wrong plz correct me, i know lil about the workings of this function)

I believe the Brake Function Causes the Victor to Draw Power to counter the Motors Movement and stall it. perhaps you may wanna try and see if switching the jumper changes anything, they are standard computer jumpers so if for some reason you have lost yours, any old computers mother board and some old ISA cards can povide you with the jumper.

Calibration - The lil Depression Switch you can only get to with a needle

You mentioned something about only going one direction?
The Victors Require Calibration to mesh up with the calibration on your joysticks. The OI has a range of -126 to 126 (from what i remember) for the joysticks, -126 being fastest backward speed and 126 being Fastest Forward Speed and ZERO (the Mid point Number) would be your neutral (Using the dashboard program from IFI can help u calibrate in a snap)
anyways your joy stick could be off center yet your victor thinks it is centered so this off set with provoke the victor to run oppsite direction of the offset, if the offset is incredibly bad your ranges could be Fastest Foward Speed 126 and your neautral -126 (-126 becoming your new Zero)... that means that since there nothing under -126 then you simply cant go backward because that would be out of range. that could explain your one direction problem. Ive had times when Victors All sudden Need to be Recalibrate for seemingly no reason. it could be a short causing the victor to reset to its original position which may Completely be off with your controls (Calibrate Both together!!!!) For instructions on Recalibrating see the Victor Manual. it tends to be a two person operation. so get someone who will not move the controls while this occurs and move them when they Have to.

last Recommendations

-Get a Compressed Air Can and clean all your parts from metal and other debris.

-Check all your crimps and solders, any bad job on any of these can cause power loss and heavy resistance even if its just one crimp and even if its just one cable.

My Roll Of Pennys

-Osc-