Driver station issue

[eaglecorps]

Good Afternoon,

We are having a major issue with our robot.  Everything comes on on the robot, but we are not able to move.  The driver station is not talking to the robot station. We have plugged everything in correctly and when we plug in the robot it flashes Quick Byte, then it goes to a blank screen with a curser in the upper left corner and stays there forever.  It never changes.  Can anyone help us?  We are going to Washington DC in September to present our program to the Congress.  We need our robot to run.

Thank you,

Alan

[Philbot]

Your post is a bit confusing.

You say you "plug in your robot".  Are you connection directly to the robot rather than going wireless?

If the display goes to "Quickbyte" then the Driver Station is rebooting.

I can only think of a couple of reasons it would do this just when you plug in the robot:

1: The ethernet connections on the DS are known to come off.  We had an instance where the connector was flexing and every time you pushed the plug in, it would flex up and reboot.

Look at the inner connector, make sure it is firmly in place.  If it's loose, DO NOT USE it.  Either connector can be used.  (if you've been running tethered maybe you yanked the cable a few times

2: You are not using the correct power supply for your DS, or the PS is failing..  The DS tends to use more power when it communicates so when it starts talking ti draws maor power and the voltage drops & causes a reboot.   Make sure you have the correct supply, or try and locate a spared 12V supply with the same rating.

[NI-Bob]

Hello Alan,

The recommendations that Philbot gave are definitely good things to think about.  I have also seen issues with the Driver Station caused by static electricity.  This will only happen if you have a crossover cable connected from the Robot to the Driver Station.  This is because if there is static electricity generated by your robot it can travel along the crossover cable and will force the Driver Station to reboot.

If you are still unable to get your Driver Station to work you need to contact FIRST directly.  Unfortunately, since National Instruments did not make the Drivers Station there is not much we can do if there is an actual hardware issue with the Driver Station.  Please feel free to let us know if there is anything else that we can do to help!

That is really awesome that you are presenting your Robot to Congress!  It is important that the whole world is aware of the FIRST program and its influence on students.  Again, feel free to let us know if there is anything that we can do to help!

Thanks!

Bob H

FIRST Support

National Instruments