I have just lost 2 ports within 2 hours of each other. The brain no longer recognizes any motors plugged into these ports, and motors lock up when plugged in.
Here’s what I know:
Both happened on the same motor.
Both happened on the same wire (Custom Length).
Both occurred just after putting on 4 inch Omni Wheels ( Motor is not on the drive train).
First time occurred without the robot moving.
Second time occurred with a different part of the robot moving.
The Robot has been used very little since starting the rebuild.
Any help on how to prevent this from happening in the future would be greatly appreciated. This is the 4th port we’ve lost in 2 weeks, and we’ve only used the brain for 2 months (was delivered at the end of last season, so it’s not covered under the warranty anymore).
Do I replace the motor? Wire? Both? If the issue is that it’s a custom length, anything we can do to prevent it? There are no standard lengths long enough for our use. Our next competition is Saturday so we don’t have much time to experiment.
I know of mo way other than anti static spray. Where did this occurr? What surface? (Or what surface the field was on)? Carpet caused more static. Could you send pictures too?
I’ve checked over the cable, it has no cuts along it and and ends are crimped without the wires exposed. It runs inside or along c-channel all the way down, so it shouldn’t be rubbing against anything besides aluminum.
What my team has figured out is that after torching 4 ports, to prevent a port from being burned out, release static. The most effective way we have figured out to release this static without spending money (using anti-static spray) is to take a wooden ruler with a metal edge and to touch the robot a few times with the metal edge before handling it. Although weird, we have tried this with a multitude of other tools but none have been as effective as a wooden ruler. Due to this, we now carry a wooden ruler with a metal edge with us to all our competitions.
Lol our claw has burned ports 3, 4, 5, and just the other day, 11. If you use our technologically advanced ruler method, however, we discovered that the chance of burning the ports due to static greatly decreases.
Just use a ruler to release static and your problems should be solved. Don’t use tools. Even though they have rubber handles, they don’t release static too well and if your bot is like ours, you will literally see the static jump to your finger when you reach to pick up the bot.
I don’t really think this case is static. Both times, the robot was only on the field for only a few minutes, with very little movement.
I’ll try that once I have either a different cause or a confirmation it is static. I only have 1 port in range of the cable, and not enough cable left to make a longer one.
It’s not that we don’t have access to anti-static spray, it’s that no competitions in my region use it on the fields from what I am aware of. I didn’t know it was legal to use on wheels, i’ll make sure to do that.
