[AlataMors]

So we figured out what was wrong.

We are using a serial connection, and for testing we used only two jags, 11 and 12. The updates are good and all the wiring is correct. The part that was wrong was the dip-switch that controls the serial port. The instructions in setting up the CAN system say to set the switch to on, but we couldn't tell if it was set to off or on. On a hunch I tried it, now we get no errors when running example code.

For those who have a similar problem "on" for the dip-switch means that the low side is toward the edge of the Rio and the high side is toward the bulk of the rest of it.