jag apears to be dead after firmware update

[Alex Chambers]

one of our black jaguars died when we were using it to firmware update a grey jag to v.101 using a db9 cable into a black jag with a connection into the grey jag with terminator at the end. has any one experienced a similar issue and if so how can we save our jag from being bricked from the failed attempt to update one of our grey jags? Ever since we tried this bdc com cant seem to connect to the jag, or at least it no longer can use firmware update which is usually how our team quickly identifies that bdc com has communication.

p.s in the past we have done this using the same cable we put together a year ago and nothing went wrong.

[Nathan4567a]

This probably doesn't have anything to do with your update. It was most likely the Jaguar itself. Jaguars are notoriously known for unreliability. Our team has had many just give out during tests or competition. This year, we have switched to using all victors. They are much more reliable and durable. They also last much longer. Most of the Victors we are using, are over three years old, and even after extensive use, they still work like new. If you have the opportunity, I would recommend using only Victors. It will make your robot much more reliable. If you still use Jaguars, be very careful with them, you don't want another one to fail.

[Cecil]

Under the File context menu, select "Recover Jaguar" and load in the Black Jaguar v.101 file. Unplug all of the other Jaguars from the bus (so the bricked one is the only one) and try to use that restore.

When updating the firmware on your tan Jaguar, make sure you enumerate it first, then make sure you select that CAN ID in BDC-Comm before updating it. Also, make sure you use the tan jaguar v.101 update.

[mjveld1018]

This exact situation happened to us yesterday. Make sure you choose the correct Board ID before updating the firmware. We were adding a new Jaguar and left it the ID set to the first black Jaguar, tried to load the grey Jaguar firmware, then it appeared to be dead. After a few minutes of poking around, we did exactly what Cecil suggested and it works just fine now.

I would have agreed with Nathan a few years ago, but if you shield your Jaguars properly you will have no problem, and you can do a lot more with Jaguars. I've had plenty of problems with Victors as well.

[Alex Chambers]

Thanks for your support,
I think I figuired out the problem, the BDC-COMM updates the lowest board ID on the connection. Thanks for your help.

[Alex Chambers]

Also,
does anybody else have problems with connecting to the black jaguars through BDC-COMM? Two of the jaguars had the previous problem that I fixed (thanks all), but two others can't seem to get communication. Has anyone else had this problem?

[Cecil]

Make sure you are plugging the serial cable into the left port on the Jaguar, as only that side has 6 contacts in it needed for comms.

If that is not the case, I would check out this thread to see if that is the problem

[Derschatten]

Are you using a computer with serial or a usb to serial? We have found that not all usb to serial cables work and will brick the jag.

As far as Jag being reliability we have only had 2 break since first started the use of them. One was because metal debris fell inside the casing which can happen to a victor. The other was when we updated the firmware on a grey jag.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Derschatten

Are you using a computer with serial or a usb to serial? We have found that not all usb to serial cables work and will brick the jag.

As far as Jag being reliability we have only had 2 break since first started the use of them. One was because metal debris fell inside the casing which can happen to a victor. The other was when we updated the firmware on a grey jag.

Last I checked any USB to serial adapter will work... just be sure you get the correct COM number.

[Cecil]

My USB to serial cable works just fine, and it is over 4 years old. If it connects to one, it should connect to all of them just fine..

[Alex Chambers]

i don't think our cable or our connection is the problem, we are using a db9 adapter cable just like the one that we run the can off of and it successfully worked on some of our jags. We are also plugging it into the right slot and have the terminator plug on the other end.

[slijin]

Originally Posted by Alex Chambers

i don't think our cable or our connection is the problem, we are using a db9 adapter cable just like the one that we run the can off of and it successfully worked on some of our jags. We are also plugging it into the right slot and have the terminator plug on the other end.

We've had a pretty bad experience with out of box failures (and boy, were the RMA techs surprised) - if plugging straight into the Jag doesn't work (after trying recover, etc), your best option would be to RMA asap.