Errors with the roboRIO.

[Thomkaar]

Hello, this is team 1388, we are having troubles both updating the firmware and imaging our roboRIOs. We have two roboRIOs, one completely wired up with our electrical board, and one only wired to a PDB, I will refer to the completely wired one as roboRIO 1, and the imcomplete one as roboRIO 2. roboRio 2 cannot have its firmware update successfully, it gives us the error "There was a problem updating the firmware for this device". As well we get this error when we attempt to image it (after 3.9 minutes):

<b>Complete call chain:</b>
nisyscfg.lvlib:Set System Image (Folder).vi:2060001
nisyscfg.lvlib:Set System Image (File).vi:4160001
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:Relmage Target.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:Reconfig Device.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:ImageManager.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:ImagingToolMain.vi

As for roboRIO 1 we can successfully update the firmware however, when imaging the roboRIO we get the following error (after 10 seconds):

<b>Complete call chain:</b>
nisyscfg.lvlib:Save Changes (System).vi:1280001
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:Config Settings.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:Reconfig Device.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:ImageManager.vi
RoboRIOImagingTool.lvlib:ImagingToolMain.vi

Any help would be greatly appreciated, in recap, roboRIO 1 can have firmware updated, and gets the second error when trying to image, and roboRIO 2 cannot have firmware updated and has the first error when we try to image. We have followed the directions on the first website to the letter, and I am positive we did it correctly. As well, we attempted the connection via USB and Ethernet, with equal results shown above, thanks for your input!

[Greg McKaskle]

The support engineers at ni.com/frc have been dealing with the details of imaging issues, but my understanding is that most of them are due to using a computer that is slower than expected by the folks who wrote the imaging/flashing tools. So if you have another computer, you may give it a try. Also, I think they have seen some issues due to firewall settings. Disable the firewall entirely and give that a try.

If you do not get it resolved. Please contact them via phone or forum and let them help you out.

Greg McKaskle

[jtechau]

Greg, thanks for the info, and for the quick reply.

The firewall might have been the issue with one of our roboRIOs. Funny thing, I had just disabled the firewall when I read your post.

One of our mentors got on the phone with NI for our other roboRIO. The conclusion is that the roboRIO is not recoverable, and will be replaced.

Teams reading this: If you find that you need to call NI for support, have an RS-232 cable made up for the roboRIO. That would have saved us some time.

It's not clear whether the failed unit was DOA, or whether it's something we did. Either way, it sounds like several teams have had unrecoverable errors that have required replacement. Fortunately for us, we had a backup roboRIO.