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Problems We've Encountered & How to Solve Them

No Power on PCB

Issue: The batteries are plugged in but nothing is on

Check the battery voltage

The voltage of the plug connecting to the PCB should be greater than 10.8V. If it's lower, the Battery Management System (BMS) could be preventing usage to avoid damage. Charge or replace the batteries.

Check the Deans plugs

  • Some Deans plugs do not fit properly, causing poor connections.
  • Directly plugging the battery into the PCB may not work—try using jumper wires instead.
  • ⚠️ BE VERY CAREFUL!
  • Swapping the Ground and V+ wires could destroy the PCB.
  • Accidentally shorting the battery terminals could destroy the battery.

Wi-Fi Connectivity

Issue: Unable to connect to the Pitt Sailbot Wi-Fi network. Or the Pi is not connected to the router.

  1. Ensure the Wi-Fi router is running
    - The router should have a green light indicating Wi-Fi signal.

  2. Check your connection
    - Make sure your device is connected to Pitt Sailbot.

  3. Verify router access
    - Open a browser and enter 192.168.8.1 in the address bar.
    - Password: sailboot
    - Click on the Clients tab to check connected devices.
    - Your device should be listed along with the Raspberry Pi(s) and their IP addresses.

  4. If the Pi is missing from the client list:
    - Unplug the Pi’s power cable from the PCB (do not turn off the entire PCB).
    - Do NOT unplug the GPIO cable (wide black cable).
    - Wait a few moments, then plug the Pi back in.

  5. Check Pi status:
    - Green light blinking (or steady) = Pi is running.
    - Only red light = Possible Pi issue.
    - No light at all = The Pi may not be receiving power.

  6. Wait & retry:
    - Sometimes, it takes a minute or two for the Pi to appear at 192.168.8.1.

ODrive Setup

Issue: Errors during calibration.

Unbalanced Phases

  1. Swap the three motor wires (on the motor side) to different female connectors.
    Hot-swapping these wires is safe ONLY IF:
    1. The calibration sequence failed for that axis.
    2. You haven't reset the axis using odrv0.clear_errors().
  2. Rerun the calibration after each attempt until error is resolved.

Encoder CPR Mismatch

  1. Ensure the encoder wires are fully plugged in.
  2. Check that the encoder is firmly attached to the motor.
  3. Spin the motor to check for excessive resistance (apply WD-40 if needed).
  4. Rerun the calibration.

Docker

Issue: ROS2 colcon build fails.

  • docker.py create might be copying over venv files, leading to unrelated package issues?

No RC Control

Issue: The RC controller fails to control the boat

The process for receiving and executing RC is as follows:

  1. RC Controller → Wirelessly signals to Receiver in the Mast.
  2. Receiver → Sends data to Teensy over Serial using the mast USB-C (transceiver.cpp).
  3. Teensy → Publishes controller state to Pi (main.cpp).
  4. Pi → Publishes controller state to various topics (transceiver.py), e.g., cmd_rudder & cmd_sail.
  5. motordrivers.py → Subscribes to topics and sets position using odrive.py.

Check Receiver LED

  • Solid blue light = Normal.
  • Blue with flashing red = Controller is off or incorrectly bound.
  • No LED light = Check if the USB-C is plugged into both ends of the mast.

Force Publish to cmd_rudder / cmd_sail

Try manually publishing a command in the Pi terminal: 

ros2 topic pub --once boat/cmd_rudder std_msgs/Float32 "{data: 30.0}"

If nothing happens, ensure the ODrive is calibrated.

Check Teensy Output & transceiver.py

Ensure Teensy is publishing and transceiver.py is receiving the data correctly.

Swap out USB-C Cable

Try flipping the mast cable or replacing with a different USB-C gen 3.2 cable.

Boat Suddenly Loses RC on Water

Issue: RC connection drops when the boat leaves Wi-Fi range or laptop goes to sleep.

Having the boat code running on an open-terminal and exiting wifi-range causes the boat to stop.

Manually kill the terminal before restarting the boat code

  1. Run the boat code as stated in Starting the Boat
  • Also try running the commands with nohup
  1. Close out the terminal on the host side

Can't Connect to SailNet Website

Issue: Unable to access the Pi-hosted site.

Ensure you are on the same network as the Pi

Do not use a mobile hotspot (especially Android, which has client isolation enabled by default). If using a hotspot, check if client isolation can be disabled.

Try accessing the site locally from the Pi