Solenoid Alert

[JahJahwarrior]

There's a few ways you can try to get a good connection on the female leads,
I don't know the length of the Jaksa leads but you could plug them in halfway and clip on to the remaining visible portion,
or take a length of wire, strip longer than required, and double it over in a V shape, and shove that in, hopefully that would provide a good contact.

I suspect you would see that it does not have the 6v required to open the solenoid.

The firmware will not impact the function of the solenoid, but of course, newer is always better.

I believe on the Solo board you should see easily the 2 wires which go to power the solenoid, as they are thicker than the divecan wires. You could do a continuity check from those pads to the pins leading to the solenoid, and confirm if there are any wires that are not connected, possibly do a continuity check on the divecan leads, but I don't have a wiring diagram, so it would be an "elimination method" testing. You can also look for any parts where there is visible damage.

 

[rsingler]

Just found this note in the v12 release notes!

"SOLO v12Release Notes
DocRev: ADate: 2016-05-10Author: tcoen
Page 1 of 3
SOLO Version 12:
• Public release. Recommended for all users of previous firmware versions.
• FIX: Fixes a problem where under specific circumstances an erroneous “Solenoid Alert” message"
could be generated the first time the solenoid fires.

 

[lermontov]

ive had the same warning on my revo - replaced battery - upgraded firmware -problem fixed , hopefully yours is simple problem too

 

[UW Stig]

Just found this note in the v12 release notes!

"SOLO v12Release Notes
DocRev: ADate: 2016-05-10Author: tcoen
Page 1 of 3
SOLO Version 12:
• Public release. Recommended for all users of previous firmware versions.
• FIX: Fixes a problem where under specific circumstances an erroneous “Solenoid Alert” message"
could be generated the first time the solenoid fires.

Ooooh! Hope that's it.

 

[broncobowsher]

I have a rEvo as well. DIVCAN on a Petral and not the NERD, but no real difference.
What I see is you are testing with 6V, the minimum listed on the checklist is 6.5V
Just because the 9v battery is new means nothing that it is good.

Can you do the build checklist and get through the solenoid firing 3 times to get the battery voltage? I would try that and see what result you get. Next another new battery from a completely different source (not another from the same package). My thought is a junk battery that is low output and maybe really drops voltage under load. Next would be an open, broken wire, bad terminal, etc. And a few more possible issues as well. But battery is my first suspect. And look at the battery leads, if they got smashed that can limit power as well.

If that doesn't show anything obvious I suggest contacting Richard with Divetronix in Washington State. He is the US service center for Shearwater and a rEvo repair center.

 

[lermontov]

What I see is you are testing with 6V, the minimum listed on the checklist is 6.5V
.

this

 

[rsingler]

What I see is you are testing with 6V, the minimum listed on the checklist is 6.5V
Just because the 9v battery is new means nothing that it is good.

Not to be argumentative, but I don't see that as saying he only got 6v from the board with a new battery (below spec). I just read that putting 6v across an unloaded solenoid showed that it clicked. That's good news, where minimal voltage plus dirt or grit might show as impaired piston motion, that might not consistently be revealed with max voltage and no IP load from the 1st stage.

But the next comment is definitely true, and the suggestion to run the checklist and get a solenoid battery voltage readout is a good one. Hopefully, though, it's just a firmware glitch that was fixed in v12 as suggested in the release notes...

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I assumed that the solenoid is not actually firing, thus the comment that the solenoid does fire when he applies voltage manually.

The solenoid alert on my Petrel controller will go away if the solenoid does fire, even if the alert was triggered previously. If the solenoid isn't firing, I believe the EXT voltage will display as a question mark.

The checklist referencing 6.5v is the build checklist for the Revo? To me that's cutting it pretty close, I toss my batteries long before 6.5v.

 

[UW Stig]

I have a rEvo as well. DIVCAN on a Petral and not the NERD, but no real difference.
What I see is you are testing with 6V, the minimum listed on the checklist is 6.5V
Just because the 9v battery is new means nothing that it is good.

Can you do the build checklist and get through the solenoid firing 3 times to get the battery voltage? I would try that and see what result you get. Next another new battery from a completely different source (not another from the same package). My thought is a junk battery that is low output and maybe really drops voltage under load. Next would be an open, broken wire, bad terminal, etc. And a few more possible issues as well. But battery is my first suspect. And look at the battery leads, if they got smashed that can limit power as well.

If that doesn't show anything obvious I suggest contacting Richard with Divetronix in Washington State. He is the US service center for Shearwater and a rEvo repair center.

Thanks- yes, I already reached out to Richard- great guy. He gave me some debugging tips.

Sorry if I misinformed about the solenoid- it is 6.5 on the spec card, but I was using a 9V battery to trigger it.

I can certainly change the battery, but it already fires the solenoid manually. The solenoid won't fire at all- so the first time it tries to fire, the SOL error comes up. I'm really curious how it *knows* the solenoid didn't fire- maybe looks for a voltage drop?

In the battery box, everything looks fresh/clean, wires are in good shape. I do wonder about those thin wires if one of them has a break, but first thing I'm going to try to update the solendoid driver firmware.

 

[UW Stig]

Ok, I upgraded the Solo firmware and turned it on/off a couple of times. No change, still get the solenoid alert. But Richard had mentioned the solenoid board needs to see a calibration happen (seems not completely related, but ok), and I did a half-assed one. And... I heard some clicks. So now onto the actual calibration.