Last Minute Pneumatics Programming Help

[T3HN3RDY1]

Okay, so here's the deal. I'm the programmer for the robot for team 2925 and I've been trying everything I can think of but cannot get our compressor to run. I'm sure that I've labeled all of the channels/inputs/etc. correctly. In my Robot Main VI I have the Compressor Open VI on the outside of the while loop, wired to the Compressor Start VI, also on the outside of the while loop. On the inside I have the Compressor Enabled VI, wired to the Compressor Stop and Close VI's on the outside. I'm completely new to LabView and have tried everything I can think of to get this to work. ANY help would be very, very much appreciated as we're quickly running out of time.

As a side note, the mentor and wiring guys say that the compressor and solenoid are hooked up properly.

Thank you to anybody that helps!

Also, my mentor asked me to mention in this post that the light on our spike is amber colored, not green. We don't know what this means, if it's bad or just normal, so information on that would be helpful.

[airnate]

You didn't say anything about a pressure switch. Is there a pressure switch in your system? Is the DIO channel for the pressure switch correctly specified when you call the Compressor Open vi?

-Nate

[T3HN3RDY1]

The pressure switch is hooked up. I don't have any pressure switch VI's in LabView, aside from the terminal that IS wired correctly in LabView. Sorry I didn't specify. Yes, I've assigned the correct value to the pressure switch DIO.

As a side note, we've connected the compressor to the battery briefly for the purposes of testing the compressor, and it works.

[airnate]

From what I can gather it sounds like you have done everything right (although it would be nice to see your code). If you have not already, you could try using the included example called Solenoid with Compressor Example. It's available in the Getting Started window when LabVIEW starts up. If you already have LabVIEW windows open, select View->Getting Started Window... from the menubar. If you don't see "Solenoid with Compressor Example" in the Getting Started window, then click the More... button for the Examples in the lower right corner.

Do you have a way of posting a schematic of your wiring hookup (even if it's a scan of the the drawing on a napkin)?

-Nate

[T3HN3RDY1]

I'm at home right now, and due to networking complications I can't post a screenshot of my work but this is done in paint, and shows the basic idea of what I have going. I'm omitting the intricacies of the rest of the Robot Main VI as they're all defaults. The only thing I've added is the compressor. The solenoid is hooked up in the Teleop VI to the trigger of the joystick in USB1. The parts I've shown are all Compressor VI's and the constants I've wired to the four terminals on the back. I BELIEVE everything -except- the Relay is hooked to 4, though we may have changed it. It we changed it, then I think I've changed it in my code as well.

[airnate]

Well, that looks good as far as it goes. But actually what I meant was, do you have a way to portray your physical wiring hookup?

[T3HN3RDY1]

Oh, uhh, no. Unfortunately I don't. The robot is back at the school, and I've done none of the wiring myself, I was programmer and configuration guy. . . My mentor and all of our builders/electrical guys took care of the wiring. Do you know anything about the orange-colored spike light though? We speculate that it should be green but have no way of knowing, and if that's the case then it's a problem with the spike's wiring, not the programming.

[airnate]

Regarding the Spike relay. The Users manual for a blue spike manual is located at:

http://www.ifirobotics.com/docs/spik...uide-sep05.pdf

The users manual indicates that the indicator is orange when both solenoids are off. When the Relay is set to the "forward" direction, the M+ is connected to the +12, and the indicator will be green (i.e when the indicator is green, the compressor should be running).

Here's what I would do:

1. Disconnect the power, ground, M+, M- wires from the Spike relay (leave the PWM/relay cable hooked up).
2. In LabVIEW, open the Relay Example vi.
3. Set the Relay Channel to the relay that you are using.
4. Set the Relay Direction to forward only (compressor only runs in "forward" direction).
5. Run the Relay Example VI and set the Relay Value to Off and then to Forward.
a. When you set the Relay Value to Off, the relay indicator should turn orange.
b. When you set the Relay Value to Forward, the indicator light should turn green.
6. Test the continuity between connections to see if they are what you expect. When Relay Value is Off, both M+ and M- should be connected with ground. When relay value is Forward, I would expect
a. continuity between Ground and M-
b. continuity between +12 and M+

If the above all works quit the Relay Example VI and test the pressure switch:

7. Open the Simple Digital Input Example vi.
8. Set the DIO channel to be the same as your pressure switch.
9. Run Simple Digital Input Example.vi to see if the pressure switch is really closed (it should be if there's no pressure).
10. If that's working, then stop and close the Simple Digital Input Example.vi

11. open the Solenoid with Compressor Example.vi
12. run the Solenoid with Compressor Example.vi
13. test for continuity as above in step 6.

If this is all working, then you should be able to hook up the power wires and the compressor wires, and it should work.

-Nate

[T3HN3RDY1]

You are truly a golden god my friend. Tomorrow we'll try ALL of that. Thank you! We tried FOREVER to figure out about that spike. That may just be our problem.

[Alan Anderson]

Do any of your other actuators (motors, relays, servos) work?

What pins on the Digital Sidecar are the control ("PWM") cable from the Spike connected to?

Are all three of the power LEDs lit on the Digital Sidecar?

Does the Driver Station display the word "Enabled" or the word "Disabled"?

What does the Driver Station show as the battery status?

What is the Robot Signal Light doing -- is it flashing, or is it on steady?

It's a lot of questions, but they'll help pin down where the problem might be.