Problem with Black Jaguars, unable to update, stopped blinking

[MPlant]

So I've been running into some pretty devastating errors that I desperately need to fix and so far have had absolutely no success in doing so.

We've been using the black jaguars and the 2CAN, however, for some weird reason, the jags had been of a bad firmware. So we attempted to update them through the 2CAN web interface. EVERY SINGLE TIME WE'VE TRIED THIS, THE JAGUAR HAS STOPPED BLINKING AND BEEN UNABLE TO CONNECT. We've tried recovering them through BDC-COMM, and it gives us the "unable to connect to bootloader error."

We've tried everything at this point and thus have become incredibly desperate; I've gotten to the point where I'm considering ordering a set of new jags overnight. Does anyone have any solution to this problem? Any help greatly appreciate!

[Cecil]

There is a known bug in the 2CAN firmware, which is supposedly fixed somewhere (I can't find the right one myself, maybe someone else can point us to it). When you recover the Jaguar using BDC-Comm, plug your serial cable into the left CAN port, and your resistor on the right. Make sure you do it one at a time - multiple Jaguars on the network stuck in the bootloader mode will give you that message. I happened to brick 2 of them myself trying to update through the 2CAN, and this worked immediately for me. If it still doesn't connect, make sure the serial cable and resistor are in place, and power cycle the Jaguar. It should connect, and you should be able to recover with the 101 firmware binary.

[MPlant]

Ah, thank you very much sir. I will try your suggestion and update this reply with the results sometime tomorrow.

[Mike Copioli]

Ok,

There was a bug in the 2CAN Jaguar firmware update utility that caused the firmware attempt to fail on the first attempt. This bug has been fixed in the latest 2CAN firmware found here http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.c...2_24_FIRST.zip. However this is not the only thing going on here. When the Jaguar firmware upload attempt fails the recommended procedure is to power cycle the Jaguar just in case the Can controller is in the Bus off state. While this fixes the bus off state it causes the Jaguars CAN bitrate to change to 500 Kbps. This is why neither the 2CAN or BDC comm is able to update firmware over CAN. There are two ways you can remedy this;

1. Use BDC comm over serial to update the firmware.
2. Change the 2CAN's bit rate to 500 Kbs under the 'CAN configuration' tab in the web dash.

If using Method 2, make sure you change the bitrate back to 1Mbps after you have successfully updated the Jag firmware. You can also verify that the bitrate has changed at the bottom of the 'Main' tab of the web dash as well by verifying that the 'CAN Bus Status' is showing no Error counts after setting the 2CAN bitrate to 500.

[MPlant]

Alright, I have tried both suggestions to no avail. I'm starting to suspect that there is a problem with either serial cable or some configuration or something, as BDC-COMM does not even detect the jag that is not broken (it connects, but doesn't change the jag's light color to green on reassignment). Maybe it's the fact that we're trying to fix the jags while they're plugged into the power distro? I don't know why that would make a difference but I've stopped thinking rationally long ago. In any case I'm really starting to think that the jags are beyond hope as they aren't able to reset.

[Cecil]

Make sure you are using a 6-wire cable for this, as it needs this to communicate serially (normally, we make them 4-wire, as that's all that is needed by CAN). Also, make sure you plug them into the left port on it, as that is the only one with a serial connection on it (6 pins in the connector, the right one only has 4 pins)

[MPlant]

We are doing all of these things according to our wiring guy, and yet there is no connection. It's bizarre

[MPlant]

What version of BDC-COMM are you guys using? perhaps there is an error in compatibility.

[Cecil]

We are using BDC-COMM-99, the one that came with LabVIEW this year. The only other thing I could suggest is to see if there are more than one COM ports on the computer, and try disconnecting and re-connecting to the Jaguar from the menu.

Other than that, I would check the wiring of your serial to CAN adaptor..

If none of those are it, I am honestly out of suggestions

[juchong]

Try using BDC-COMM-101, the newest version. Also, try using BDC-COMM to talk to another Jag that is known to be working. This should sort out whether you've got a bad cable or not.