RC stuck in "Program State"

[AndyB]

Hey, we need to take our 2005 robot over to a highschool for a presentation, but the controller is in "Program State". I dont know a whole lot about controllers.

Both the remote on the robot and the transmitter on the OI are in "Standby" mode. Sorry for my "newbie"-ness but I need to leave in about an hour, and I can't get ahold of any of our mentors or programmers.

[Ricky Q.]

Andy-

Check your PM's.

[AndyB]

Yeah, still not working. The symptoms are this:

Battery Power = Blinking Green
Program State = Solid Green
Radio Modem = Solid Orange
RC Hardware = Dark
RC Mode = Dark

We are also reciving on OI

No Data/Radio = Red

We have a radio hooked up to it.

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by AndyB

Yeah, still not working. The symptoms are this:

Battery Power = Blinking Green
Program State = Solid Green
Radio Modem = Solid Orange
RC Hardware = Dark
RC Mode = Dark

We are also reciving on OI

No Data/Radio = Red

We have a radio hooked up to it.

Sounds to me that you have a bad serial cable from the radio to the robot controller.

[bear24rw]

Try teathering it and restarting... then just try pressing reset or hold the program button and then reset or press the reset again... it happened to my once and i teathered it and just played around with it..

Good luck

[eugenebrooks]

There is a controller fault, producible with bad software, where the controller won't run and the program state light is on, while it really is not in program state. If leaves you stuck because it indicates program state but won't load a new program. The controller will come up in this same state every time you power it up, so power cycling it does not clear the problem.

In this case, hold the program button down the right number of seconds to put it in program state, it was 3-4 seconds as I recall, but don't expect any light changes to indicate anything. Then load a program that is known to be good and this should get you going. You can then re-try loading the possibly errant program and learn that it is in fact the errant program that is causing the problem.

Eugene

[ewankoff]

this happened to us at the nj regional. all i remember is that there is a complicated button combination you need to press. if you can look up more about the controller you might be able to find it.

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by AndyB

Yeah, still not working. The symptoms are this:

Battery Power = Blinking Green
Program State = Solid Green
Radio Modem = Solid Orange
RC Hardware = Dark
RC Mode = Dark

We are also reciving on OI

No Data/Radio = Red

We have a radio hooked up to it.

Solid Green, code not executing, Orange Radio light, it doesn't see the radio.
Code doesn't begin execution until the first packet of OI data is received, so it sounds like a communications issue. If you wish to try a master reset you must hold both program and reset buttons for ten seconds after power up, release reset and hold program for a few more seconds, you should only get two LEDs lit on the RC, from there redownload your program and reset. Also check your cables from RC<->Modem, perhaps a tether would be good to ascertain it is in fact a communications problem.

And I did all of that from memory, so it might be a bit fuzzy here or there...

Oh and congratulations, you broke my anti-CD policy, stinking FIRSTers..can't get rid of y'all.

[AndyB]

The correct answer was: Bad OI radio, but I found the tether cords so it was working at the demo. Thanks for your help everyone.