Clawbot motors not responding

[johnmnz]

Pretty sure there’s a simple answer here but I’m scratching my head. I teach robotics and every pair of students in the class have successfully built a Clawbot. They all work except for one in which neither of the motors on the claw will do anything (raise / lower the arm, open / close the claw). They are plugged into ports 6 & 7 using 393 motors with motor controller cables. I have messed with the program to try to debug it and stepped through the code. It appears that the Cortex is not seeing the buttons on the controller being pressed - I have tried two controllers including one I know is working. I’ve also plugged a different motor into port 6 that should do nothing but spin : it does nothing. Got to have overlooked something really dumb - two dud controller cables? Doesn’t seem likely.
And, different topic, has anyone got a hint as to how to plug those fiddly little cables into the Cortex for someone like me with big fat fingers?

Thanks in advnace - John M

[Aponthis]

It’s possible the port on that cortex is broken. Actually, everything suggests that. Try using a different port.

[johnmnz]

It does indeed look like the Cortex has fried ports 6 & 7, as did the Cortex I swapped in its place. Only when I swapped in a third did the blessed thing finally work!

[Aponthis]

@johnmnz

It does indeed look like the Cortex has fried ports 6 & 7, as did the Cortex I swapped in its place. Only when I swapped in a third did the blessed thing finally work!

You could have also just used ports 4 and 5 and changed your code and wiring! Regardless, I’m glad we could figure that out.