BDC-comm for 2CAN

[kenfox]

We saw the grayed out UI problem when someone changed the 2CAN's IP. BDC-COMM started up, saw the 2CAN (the COM Port showed "2CAN" and didn't warn about not connecting), but the entire UI was disabled as if there wasn't a 2CAN.

Switching back to the default IP fixed the problem.

The root cause may have been a misconfigured laptop network though. I am currently running the 2CAN on IP 10.33.22.10 and my laptop talks to it fine. BDC-COMM works fine on my laptop.

Terrible bug report I'm sorry, but maybe it will point you towards something in network communications.

[Levansic]

Not sure what happened, but now we cannot connect to our practice robot 2CAN with the new BDC-Comm.

The only port listed is 2CAN. We can connect over the web interface, and with the 2CAN firmware utility, but apparently not BDC-Comm, anymore.

We tried from several computers that previously worked, but now we get a message from BDC-Comm that it cannot find the selected COM port. That error appears on every laptop. We tried to change to a 192.168.0.xx subnet, and that didn't work either. Tried disabling the wireless networks, and verified for all of our laptops that the firewall was turned off. From earlier issues, we made sure the firmware utility was not running in the background, but in those cases, it would pretend to connect and it would not give the missing COM port message.

At least the web interface is still working great. I wish I knew what may have changed.

Has anyone seen this type of problem?

-- Len

[ozrien]

Can you confirm that FIRST 2.29 firmware is loaded on the 2CAN?
The 2.29 crf is in the zip with the bdc_comm.exe on our website.
2CAN Firmware version is at the bottom of the webpage and also can be retrieved thru the firmware utility.

That error can happen if BDC_Comm can't "find" the 2CAN or if it fails to load the DLLs it uses to find/connect to the 2CAN. Can you confirm that all the files in bdc-comm (CTR-2CAN supported) - 1_7_2013.zip are uncompressed together in the same directory. The directory should have a bdc_comm.exe, along with bdc-2can.dll and 2CAN_Comm.dll

Since you can get to the webdash I'm thinking something else is stopping bdc_comm.exe from finding the 2CAN. Usually it's a firewall issue. Are you connecting an Ethernet cable directly between the laptop and 2CAN or going over wireless? It shouldn't matter but a direct cable connection might help narrow down the issue.

[Levansic]

Yes. The firmware utility says that the connected 2CAN is on firmware 2.29.

The 2CAN is connected directly to the laptop with an ethernet patch cable.

I will have to check on the DLL's and the folder. Now that you mention it, the BDC-Comm.exe file, rather than a shortcut, may have been on the desktop of both of the laptops we tried. I know that when it worked earlier, we were just running the program out of the unzipped folder it came in. I think one of our aspiring programmers was "optimizing" or "organizing" the laptops...

-- Len

[Levansic]

Thanks again Omar!

It was indeed the missing DLL files. Apparently the executables were copied to the desktop, and the remainder of the folder thrown away or stashed somewhere else.

-- Len