IFI Loader

[Keys]

Hello everyone. Has anyone else been having a problem with the IFI loader? It seems that it decides when it wants to finish sending the hex file or not. It keeps crashing. Has anyone else had this problem?

[Damian Manda]

We have not loaded many programs yet, but in the few that we have, I have not seen this problem. Have you tried setting the RC to program mode by holding down the "Prog" button. This shouldn't change anything, but might help if the RC is quitting program mode for some reason. Also, is your 7.2v backup battery charged and plugged in?

--Damian Manda

[Jay Lundy]

Make sure you download the latest version from their site. The earlier version only had a 16k buffer, so you couldn't load programs >16k even though program memory can hold 32k.

[rwaliany]

My Linux IFI Loader has only support for 16kbytes of data currently, and it transfers the default code fine. Maybe perhaps your trying to download the EduRobot code onto the First Robot controller. Make sure your console display window is open also, the buffer doesn't seem to clear if your ifi console debug window input is receiving input and not showing on the screen.

[Astronouth7303]

Check the newer thread similar to this. I posted a TON of steps there.

[gnormhurst]

Originally Posted by Keys

Hello everyone. Has anyone else been having a problem with the IFI loader? It seems that it decides when it wants to finish sending the hex file or not. It keeps crashing. Has anyone else had this problem?

I am struggling with IFI loader intermittently hanging. The progress bar makes it part way across and then it hangs. Even with the default code from the web site! Sometimes it makes it all the way, the terminal window pops up and the code runs. But it takes about 3-5 tries to get a successful load. This is slowing down development. By the time it actually loads and runs, I have sometimes forgotten the change I was trying! But that's mostly due to middle age...

By "hanging" I mean that the progress bar stops moving, I click on the "X" to kill the program and I get a dialog box that tells me that the program is not responding, which lets me kill it. I then re-launch IFI Loader and try again. After 3-5 cycles of this, it usually succeeds.

I was using Version 1.0.6 on Windows 2000 Pro SP2 on a Dell Latitude CPi 366 MHz 128 MB. I upgraded W2K to SP3a (because Dashboard would not install otherwise), then reinstalled IFI Loader to see if that would help -- no change. I called David Maxwell at IFI, a nice guy who tried to be helpful but could not think of much more than "try the new version" (1.0.7), which I did, but no change, it still hangs 4 out of 5 tries.

I'm out of ideas. What can I try? Could another app be touching the COM port in the background? How would I know? Are the COM port settings I can change? Buffer settings? Can I slow down the serial port on the RC? A reliable loader at half the speed would be a big improvement!

-Norm

[jerry w]

Originally Posted by gnormhurst

I am struggling with IFI loader intermittently hanging. The progress bar makes it part way across and then it hangs.

i have seen these symptoms on windows XP. it is a com port problem. knowing the problem does not mean I know the answer.

what I did to get better results is to change port numbers. this is not too difficult. windows control panel / system-icon / hardware-tab / device manager-button , gets access to the com ports.
right click the port and select properties.
the port setting-tab / advanced settings-button allows changing of the port number.
i changed mine from the defaulted port-7 down to port-2 and got fewer faults. (still a problem 20% of the time)

i have a USB to serial converter, and sometimes windows changes the port number on me. so I just change it back to what works best.

someone else may know the root cause, but at least we can work around the problem.

Jerry W