how many people have had failing jaguars

[nomad725]

ours was not going backwards nd we looked over everythin nd all the wires were fine then one of the jaguars started to smoke and almost caught on fire...jus becuase tht happened our team decided to stick with the vectors

[utlinebacker]

If you are participating in a regional event this week, please look for us and say hi! We’d love to meet with you and learn about your experiences with Jaguar. We’ll attempt to drop by each team pit and introduce ourselves.

Regional Event:: Luminary Micro Advisor
Washington, DC:: Brian Kircher & Scott Emley
Cleveland, OH:: Dave Wilson
Manchester, NH:: Kyle Norman
Trenton, NJ:: Paul Jordan
Traverse City, MI:: Tom Fedorko
Oklahoma City, OK:: Scott McMahon
Kansas City, KS:: Joe Kroesche
Chicago, IL:: Bobby Bradford

Here is the weekly status as of Friday (Feb 20th) evening:

Since November, we have received 88 reported failures that we have immediately replaced. Here is a pareto of the complaints:
• DOA:
- Neutral LED – 7
- PWM Missing – 3
- PWM function – 10
• Reverse only – 32
• Forward only - 1
• No voltage on output – 6
• Incorrect output voltage - 4
• Stopped working – 17
• FET melted - 2
• Other – 6

Of those 88 reported failures, we have only received 42 units back to us (still less than half) – which we have analyzed. Here is a pareto of the analyses:
• Flash not programmed – 2
• Customer-induced EOS – 3
• Gate driver U6 failed – 29
• 5V regulator failed – 3
• Missing PWM connector – 3
• Other – 2

We’re hoping we’ll receive more failed units back now that the ship deadline has passed.

My echoing reminder: If you have experienced a failure, PLEASE contact us at support@luminarymicro.com. When you do, PLEASE provide us as much information about your failure as possible (see my questions list here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=57 – and send us pictures of your system, which are exceptionally helpful for us in understanding your use model). Finally, if you do receive an RMA replacement unit, PLEASE ship us the Jaguar that is giving you trouble. As you can see from above, we have still received only about half of all RMAs we have issued, and ideally, we’d like the opportunity to analyze every failed unit.

Good luck at regionals!

Regards,
Scott

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by utlinebacker

If you are participating in a regional event this week, please look for us and say hi! We’d love to meet with you and learn about your experiences with Jaguar. We’ll attempt to drop by each team pit and introduce ourselves.

Regional Event:: Luminary Micro Advisor
Washington, DC:: Brian Kircher & Scott Emley
Cleveland, OH:: Dave Wilson
Manchester, NH:: Kyle Norman
Trenton, NJ:: Paul Jordan
Traverse City, MI:: Tom Fedorko
Oklahoma City, OK:: Scott McMahon
Kansas City, KS:: Joe Kroesche
Chicago, IL:: Bobby Bradford

Here is the weekly status as of Friday (Feb 20th) evening:

Since November, we have received 88 reported failures that we have immediately replaced. Here is a pareto of the complaints:
• DOA:
- Neutral LED – 7
- PWM Missing – 3
- PWM function – 10
• Reverse only – 32
• Forward only - 1
• No voltage on output – 6
• Incorrect output voltage - 4
• Stopped working – 17
• FET melted - 2
• Other – 6

Of those 88 reported failures, we have only received 42 units back to us (still less than half) – which we have analyzed. Here is a pareto of the analyses:
• Flash not programmed – 2
• Customer-induced EOS – 3
• Gate driver U6 failed – 29
• 5V regulator failed – 3
• Missing PWM connector – 3
• Other – 2

We’re hoping we’ll receive more failed units back now that the ship deadline has passed.

My echoing reminder: If you have experienced a failure, PLEASE contact us at support@luminarymicro.com. When you do, PLEASE provide us as much information about your failure as possible (see my questions list here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=57 – and send us pictures of your system, which are exceptionally helpful for us in understanding your use model). Finally, if you do receive an RMA replacement unit, PLEASE ship us the Jaguar that is giving you trouble. As you can see from above, we have still received only about half of all RMAs we have issued, and ideally, we’d like the opportunity to analyze every failed unit.

Good luck at regionals!

Regards,
Scott

That seems like a lot of Gate Driver failures. Is there a problem with a design or the quality of the components used?

[Sovietmagician]

We were going to use jaguars then all of a sudden one shorted out so we switched to victors and have had no problems at all.

[ruhiyyeh]

We've been having quite a few problems with our jaguars for our drivebase. We had two coupled cim motors, and one motor's jaguar failed (we noticed the smell and the fact that one motor was hot while the other was cold). That was replaced a couple times, until we borrowed a jaguar that worked. Then the jaguar for the other motor seemed to have problems, though at least it didn't smell burnt. On the field, we noticed that our bot would start off fine, then begin to stop and start. It would get slower over time. We thought that it might be because the jaguar was getting too much current and then failing for a moment, causing the other jaguar to fail in return. We figured this caused a cycle of jaguars failing repeatedly, causing our robot to be slow when only one had failed, and stop completely when both had.

So we replaced them with victors. Last I heard, one of the victors had burnt out, possibly because it couldn't handle the current.

All our other jaguars and victors work perfectly. Our batteries were freshly charged, and I made sure that the pwms were in the right orientation.

[Madison]

A Jaguar failed on our machine today during the Oregon Regional semi-final.

Not happy.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Madison

A Jaguar failed on our machine today during the Oregon Regional semi-final.

Not happy.

Dang Madison, that sucks. Any suggestions on what to do in order to avoid jags from killing each other. BTW, totally random but today I volunteered and reffed at a FTC comp and daisy chaining speed controllers was pretty cool. Totally random but just like to bring the CAN feature up.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by ruhiyyeh

On the field, we noticed that our bot would start off fine, then begin to stop and start. It would get slower over time. We thought that it might be because the jaguar was getting too much current and then failing for a moment, causing the other jaguar to fail in return.

Sounds to me like your CIMs are drawing more than 40 AMPs. That will cause your snap action breaker to trip and then reset. Since it's a thermal driven device once it trips it will trip again quicker and stay tripped longer each time.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by ruhiyyeh

On the field, we noticed that our bot would start off fine, then begin to stop and start. It would get slower over time.

Remember that when the Jaguar goes into fail mode, there is a three second delay after the failure point has been removed. It is unlikely that the field conditions this year can cause over current so it is likely something else. Improper transmission assembly, bad alignment on shafts, too much chain tension, loose hardware, etc.

[Bill Tompkins]

Two jaguars died. Both the same problem, burned out in one direction only.
Bill

[clueless newbie]

Team 3119 lost one Jag during build testing and our spare (reverse but no forward) during the games at Wayne State.

We're a rookie team with no funds --- (hey, we're doing good --- we own two screwdrivers and a "made-in-China" 1/4" drive ratchet set!). We got a teacher to put up $74 just so we could continue competing! Fortunately it paid off --- we made the semi-finals!

I certainly hope we can RMA the dead ones!

[Carmine Rizzo]

Ours failed in the last match of the qtr finals in Jersey.

[Nickel5]

Team 2472 has had jaguars fail in the final round of a regional. Once the robot was reset, they worked fine (This is most likely jaguars, but we're not positive). No changes were made to cause this.

We also had an experience of a jaguar break in the final round at a mock regional. No changes were made to cause this.

I emphasize finals to show that they were reliable up to that point so most likely it isn't an electrical or programming issue.

[Jones571]

Team 571 had a jag fail after just 15 minutes of driving on ship day. Normal use hooked up to a CIM not running at stall just smoked. We use a removeable electronics bord so no chips of any kind get into our electronics. We suffered a similar issue at BAE in he elims last year. Thinking about campaining to go back to good ol' Victors...

[Mr. Lim]

Now that TI has bought Luminary Micro, does anyone know who we contact to have our Jaguars RMA'ed?