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Re: What does it take to brick an RCX (no pun intended)?
I've had a total of 7-8 RCXs. Three of them have died. In the early RCXs(the ones with a power connector on the back, or bottom depeding on how you look at it) the bottom(green half) of the RCX had held the batteries, but the connection between that and the main board was nothing more than pressure between the board, and a belt piece of metal. I had two die because that no longer made connection. LEGO replaced both units without a question, and even let me keep both defective units.
I had another one die when we had a LEGO speed competition, and one of the robot smashed into a pole. That pushed the black piece on the front of the RCX into the main board, and damaged several components. That is the only RCX, after I had upgraded units, that had a problem.
The motors on the other hand are horrible. One FLL season we burned up 12 motors, again all replaced free of charge by LEGO. I believe in fours years of FLL I lost over 35 LEGO motors to random failures. HAVE EXTRA MOTORS!
I have never had a problem with sensor failures.
EDIT: If the RCX won't load firmware, remove the batteries, and pres the power button 10-15 times. That will usually solve that problem.
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Eric Haskins KC9JVH
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