Radio Config Tool errors

[billbo911]

This evening we downloaded the 2017 radio config tool and attempted to configure two of the OM5P-AC radios we had purchased at the end of last year.
Our first step was to try to load firmware as it is our understanding that the base firmware on these radios is incorrect for use in FRC.

Upon clicking on the button to load firmware, we got an error message stating the drivers for the NIC could not be found, and to reset the radio and try again.
Now we have seen this error intermittently with last years config tool as well, and with the FRC Kiosk tool also, so I can't say it is just an issue with this year's tool. We saw this error on a couple different laptops as well, so it is not just mine.

So, the question is, who else get's this error and is there a work around?

[orangelight]

I think my team got the same error last year, it might've been caused because we were using an Ethernet dongle. The only way we got it to work was to use another laptop with native Ethernet

[Mark McLeod]

I used it on the older OpenMesh radio and both firmware and setup worked fine.
I don't have a new radio yet to test.

Have you tested it on one of the older radios?

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

I used it on the older OpenMesh radio and both firmware and setup worked fine.
I don't have a new radio yet to test.

Have you tested it on one of the older radios?

Hi Mark, no I did not try it on our older radios yet. I probably will not have another chance to test this until mid-week. I know it's not related to the radio attached because we had the same issue with last year's software. It's definitely an issue with the laptop. I saw this with another mentor's laptop on a completely different team last year as well. I was able to resolve it last year after making many changes to the configuration of the laptop and rebooting it multiple times.
Later today I will be removing all of the NI software on my laptop in preparation for getting the new software after kickoff. Once that has all been loaded I will test again. I do recall that adding the NI utilities last year seemed to resolve this issue the first time. It also resolved it for the other Mentor who was having this issue. I will post my findings after I've had an opportunity to make those changes.

[FrankJ]

Hmm. A bit of a guess but. There two bit of the puzzle. The config tool actually just sets the configuration. The new radios don't have firmware yet. Is firmware included in the released package? Since the old radios have firmware, the tool is able to do the configuration.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

Hmm. A bit of a guess but. There two bit of the puzzle. The config tool actually just sets the configuration. The new radios don't have firmware yet. Is firmware included in the released package? Since the old radios have firmware, the tool is able to do the configuration.

The utility has a separate action to install firmware as well as configuring the radio for home use. I've used previous utility versions to install firmware on a blank radio, as well as, installing firmware manually and having a blank radio wasn't an issue. The firmware install process doesn't care.


For your laptop that's acting up...
- Disable the wireless NIC and any other extra NIC hardware, leaving just the one Ethernet port. The utility can get confused if more than one exists.
- Disable firewalls and anti-virus
- Don't power the radio until after you've clicked "Firmware" on the utility.

I haven't seen the message about missing NIC drivers before (that I remember) though.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

...
For your laptop that's acting up...
- Disable the wireless NIC and any other extra NIC hardware, leaving just the one Ethernet port. The utility can get confused if more than one exists.
- Disable firewalls and anti-virus
- Don't power the radio until after you've clicked "Firmware" on the utility.

I haven't seen the message about missing NIC drivers before (that I remember) though.

Yep, I had disabled all network adapters except the ethernet. I've been bit by that before because this software does get tripped up if you don't.
I will double check firewall and antivirus before I do anything else. I don't believe they are a problem but it will be good to test this process without them.
I had not tried starting the firmware load without the radio already being powered. That will be my first attempt when I get back to it.

EDIT:
Now that I have had my second cup of coffee, I realize that our last test was made with the Radio un-powered. I still got the same error message. Thus, it re-enforces my belief that the issue lies with the configuration of my laptop.

[billbo911]

Here is some basic troubleshooting I performed today in some spare time at the office. Each step was using the same configuration (except where noted). Each step followed one after the other with changes as noted. All steps failed with the error messages in the attached image.

Configuration:
No network cable connected to replicate the Radio being powered off.
All other adapters (WiFi and Bluetooth) disabled.

Troubleshooting steps:

1)NIC set to DHCP.
2)NIC IP set to 10.20.73.10.
3)Updated NIC drivers to latest version available. (No test followed)
4)NIC set to DHCP.
5)NIC IP set to 10.20.73.10.
6)Removed ALL NI software.
7)Turned off Firewll.
8)Turned off AV.
I restored AV and Firewall and stopped testing at this point.
So, where do I go from here?

EDIT/

I just did one additional test.
I connected a Display Port to Ethernet adapter that is specific to this laptop.
The second NIC showed up as expected.
I then disabled all interfaces other than the new one and repeated the above test.
I got the same error message, except it was looking for the second device by name.

So, same issue but a different adapter.

[Jordan11v]

Originally Posted by billbo911

This evening we downloaded the 2017 radio config tool and attempted to configure two of the OM5P-AC radios we had purchased at the end of last year.
Our step was to try to load firmware as it is our understanding that the base firmware on these radios is incorrect for use in FRC.

Upon clicking on the button to load firmware, we got an error message stating the drivers for the NIC could not be found, and to reset the radio and try again.
Now we have seen this error intermittently with last years config tool as well, and with the FRC Kiosk tool also, so I can't say it is just an issue with this year's tool. We saw this error on a couple different laptops as well, so it is not just mine.

So, the question is, who else get's this error and is there a work around?

So we have 2 of these radios at my school and we had just configured them recently. Make sure your radio config program is up to date here https://usfirst.collab.net/sf/frs/do...ation_utilit_1
Choose the bottom one not the IL one or whatever thats for a different country. What we did originally was tried to configure it then it gave us the bridge error so then we loaded firmware and it worked. Then configured it. Make sure your ethernet cable is connected to your pc and make sure its connected on the far right port on the radio not the center one.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Jordan11v

So we have 2 of these radios at my school and we had just configured them recently. Make sure your radio config program is up to date here https://usfirst.collab.net/sf/frs/do...ation_utilit_1
Choose the bottom one not the IL one or whatever thats for a different country. What we did originally was tried to configure it then it gave us the bridge error so then we loaded firmware and it worked. Then configured it. Make sure your ethernet cable is connected to your pc and make sure its connected on the far right port on the radio not the center one.

All these steps were followed. This software was just released 3 days ago.

BTW, the "IL" version is for Israel.

[Mark McLeod]

I'm in Manchester for Kickoff, so I won't be much help until Sunday or so.
You might possibly try walking through a manual firmware update, but the directions/software I have for that are at home, and I'd want to test them to make sure I get it right.

[malkier22]

Had the same problem trying to update the firmware on the new OM5P-AC. Failed to get past errors on the first 2 laptops. Tried the FRC Radio Config tool on a desktop and it worked perfectly! Seems there is a configuration issue with the some NICs and the software provided by WPILib. Try a few different NICs before you give up on the software. It does work!

Good luck programming!

Mr Barnes
Programming Mentor
Team 3011 Wiesbaden Germany

[Peter Johnson]

Version 17.2 has been posted that should fix the NPF error: https://usfirst.collab.net/sf/frs/do...ation_utilit_2

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Peter Johnson

Version 17.2 has been posted that should fix the NPF error: https://usfirst.collab.net/sf/frs/do...ation_utilit_2

Thanks Peter!
This version does indeed appear to have fixed the issue. I will confirm tonight when I get to the shop.