Intermittent CAN operation based on DS mode

[laurarhodes]

We are operating motors on our robot controller using the cRIO RS232-to-Black Jaguar CAN Bus. The Jaguars stop randomly and momentarily. When running in Driver mode on the Operation tab on the Classmate PC, they do not stop.

However, switching tabs in the driver station causes it to pause, and, in particular, the Diagnostics tab causes the Jaguars to stop about once every 1/2 second.

When we operate the robot from the Classmate, we have fewer instances of this problem than when we run the Driver Station software on another computer.

[omalleyj]

Re: Intermittent CAN operation based on DS mode

We see this behavior using the 2CAN as well.

[jross]

Re: Intermittent CAN operation based on DS mode

I'm going to guess that this is not CAN related, but system watchdog related. NI is working on a update to the driver station to fix system watchdog issues. Watch the diagnostics window on the classmate and see if the motor stopping corresponds to a watchdog message.

Keep in mind the normal usage of the classmate in a match. It is not expected that you would switch tabs. Switching tabs is extra work for the DS. Also, the diagnostics tab is pinging control system components to make the red and green LEDS for communication, that's extra load.