For the 4th year in a row I have to contact the forum and I am not happy. I want equipment that works year after year! Anyway I have a two arms that have wrists that consistently go back and forth when the robot is turned on and I also have another dead power cord (2nd year in a row). Please advise to fix both.
We can provide PLTW schools with direct support using the e-mail [email protected]
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Wrist rotating: This is certainly not a common issue. If you have a spare servo, can you disconnect the problematic wrist rotate from the SSC-32U, and plug a separate servo into the same pin, ensuring the orientation of the connector is correct? This will help determine if it’s the servo which is problematic, or if it’s another issue. If the new servo does not go back and forth, check the connection from the SSC-32U to the “problematic” servo, ensuring the servo extensions are all connected correctly (yellow to yellow, black to black) and that it’s plugged in correctly at the base.
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If the new servo has the same issue, then it might be electrical (SSC-32U) or relate to the programming. To confirm, all other servos behave as expected when the robot is turned on and connected to the software? If so, the best approach, if you are able, would be to substitute another SSC-32U (pin for pin) with the one in question to see if it behaves correctly, or you still have the same issue. If you still have the same issue, then it’s the programming as opposed to the electronics. If the servo behaves normally with the “new” SSC-32U, then it’s the SSC-32U which is problematic.
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The third procedure would be to use a power supply which is functional on a different arm. It may be that the power supply cannot provide the necessary current to all servos, but only the last one is “glitching”. Please take a close look at how the wires for the power harness (connecting the SSC-32U to the wall adapter) is connected and ensure there are no loose wires.
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If you’ve gotten to this step and both the servo and electronics behave normally in different systems, then we will need to know a lot more about how you are controlling the servo. Note that on its own, without being connected to any software, the system would behave erratically. We’d need you to really see what might be different between this arm and any others which are functional. Please provide clear photos showing all connections.
Can you confirm that it’s the cord or the power supply which is problematic? If you can provide your invoice number, we can see which was shipped to you and when.
In order to help resolve such issues, we will soon be offering an assembled / tested version of the arm.
Again it’s a shame I have to take all this time (which is something that is precious when you teach 5 different classes) to try and fix these robots. It’s the fourth year in a row I have to take time tp deal with boards that are not working, power cords, programming the board, etc. It’s unfortunate that PLTW makes us use these robots for our class. Hopefully I can find some other robots that actually have less issues. And I tried to attach a video of the wrists constantly rotating but my 10 second video is apparently too large.
4 of my 6 robots have wrists that go berserk and one has a wrist that won’t work. That means i have one working robots. ONE! Thank you for selling my district junk. Very frustrated.
Once again, you are welcome to contact us directly at [email protected]
We understand that the wrists rotate back and forth - that is not the issue. Please take another look at what we wrote and the questions asked.