The way our robot is wired, the spikes is connected to the Power Distribution Board which is connected to the Compact Fan PN4212.
I was wondering, Do you connect a PWM wire from the spike to the digital side car to program it?
-Rookie programmer for Labview. Sorry if this seems like it’s in the wrong area but i thought it would be appropriate since it has to do with the wiring.
There should be no reason to use a spike for the fan. If you plug the power and ground directly into the PD board with a ?20amp?, it will run constantly whenever the robot is on. The fans dont really draw enough power to make constant use a problem.
The PWM from the Spike connects to one of the RELAY channels on the digital sidecar. It doesn’t necessarily need to be there for programing, but for operation/debugging, it does. The spike is a relatively simple device that cannot be programed to operate independently. It cannot store and execute machine code, the storage and execution of all code related to the relay modules is handled by the crio and without a data link between the crio and the spike through the digital sidecar, the spike is useless.
I hope this helps.
-Alan
EDIT: I see no reason why you couldn’t run a fan off of a spike, but as stated by others, constant operation is, effectively, inconsequential.
However, IF for some strange reason you really want to be able to switch the fan on and off, you do use a PWM cable to connect from the Spike to one of the “relay” connections on the Digital Sidecar. Just remember the “B” on the Spike means “Black wire”, which is (-), and that’s also marked on the sidecar - hook it up properly!
As for programming, sorry, can’t help you.
Thank You for your gracious professionalism Alan, Don and Collin 
. It is my first/last year(senior) in Robotics and I’m not sure of a lot of things.