Troubleshooting

The concepts Friday were easy, but sometimes the equipment didn't cooperate. If you're having trouble with the equipment, it's probably a good idea to check out a few of the usual suspects before you panic. It might take us instructors a while to get over to help you and a little easy troubleshooting can save time.

1. Check the power: 
• Is the block plugged into powerbar? 
• Is the powerbar switch on? 
• Make sure that the little power plug is pushed all the way into the LabPro interface. (If you push it in and you hear the LabPro jingle, then it wasn't pushed in enough.)
• If there's power, then there should be some lights on inside.
  
2. Check the USB cable. The USB cable should be plugged into the LabPro and the other end to the computer. It might go to the USB port in the monitor instead of the computer, but people tell me this is less reliable. And make sure it's going to the USB port of your computer.
3. Make sure the sensor is plugged into the correct port. For example the Motion Sensor should normally be plugged into the DIG/SONIC 1 port for the setup file that's recommended in unit 3.  (It can work in the other port but you have to change the setting in LoggerPro software under "Setup Sensors...".)
4. If you lose your LoggerPro tool bar, click on the little button in the upper right-hand corner of the Logger Pro window.
5. If the sensors were not plugged in when you loaded the setup file then try reloading the setup file again after the sensors are plugged in. Many of the sensors are auto-detected, but not all. Later on you'll have to learn how to tell LoggerPro by hand which sensor is on what port. That's under the menu item "Setup Sensors...".
6. If you're getting noisy motion data, then clear out all extra stuff from nearby your track like pencil boxes, bags, books etc. Keep your hands away from the track while measuring. Try adjusting the tilt of the detector and put it on narrow beam to measure cart motion.

If these steps don't solve the problem then you have to go into advanced troubleshooting. This is based on a divide and conquer strategy.  Try to isolate where the trouble is by testing each component of the chain using a sort of search algorithm:

1. Figure out if the problem is with the computer or with the interface+sensor. You can do this by trying your interface on another computer. If it still doesn't work then it's the interface if it does then it was the computer.
2. Now let's assume you found that it was the interface.  Do each of the following in sequence until you find the component that's at fault.  
• Try changing the LabPro with another one. 
• Try another sensor. 
• Try another cable.  
• Try another power supply.

Similarly if you had found that the computer was a fault you'd have to figure out whether it was a software or hardware issue and then subdivide using the same process.

Troubleshooting skills are important in almost any technical field you might be involved in. Get good at them and you'll be indispensable.