Dead RCX..

[Astronouth7303]

• Check the enviroment; I believe this solves most problems
• Is this the COM or USB tower? the COM tower requires a 9-volt battery
• (COM) Is the cable good? It's a null-modem cable, so check it.
• Is the computer port OK?

And has anyone tried LUGNET yet? The group you probably want is lugnet.robotics.rcx.

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

• Check the enviroment; I believe this solves most problems
• Is this the COM or USB tower? the COM tower requires a 9-volt battery
• (COM) Is the cable good? It's a null-modem cable, so check it.
• Is the computer port OK?

And has anyone tried LUGNET yet? The group you probably want is lugnet.robotics.rcx.

no, ive tried in a dark room, and also with making kinda like a tunnel between the tower and the rcx with white paper. same results...
its the com tower but im using a usb to serial adapter because my laptop doestn have any serials. the tower is using a brand new 9v battery. how do i check the cable?
the computer port(the usb one) works great with everything else ive used it for, like thumbdrives

[Astronouth7303]

The best way to check the cable is to connect it to 2 computers and open HyperTerminal.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

no, ive tried in a dark room, and also with making kinda like a tunnel between the tower and the rcx with white paper. same results...
its the com tower but im using a usb to serial adapter because my laptop doestn have any serials. the tower is using a brand new 9v battery. how do i check the cable?
the computer port(the usb one) works great with everything else ive used it for, like thumbdrives

Well, we all know how well USB-serial converters worked for the FRC/Edubot controllers.

I think you'll need to get a computer with a serial port to download. The USB and COM towers work differently, specifically the COM tower shuts down and has to be woken up again, where as the USB stays on the entire time it is plugged in. If you configured the LEGO software to work with the USB tower, then that's your problem. (I think)

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Ryan Morehart

Well, we all know how well USB-serial converters worked for the FRC/Edubot controllers.

we do? i dont... but im guessing they didnt work too well?

I think you'll need to get a computer with a serial port to download. The USB and COM towers work differently, specifically the COM tower shuts down and has to be woken up again, where as the USB stays on the entire time it is plugged in. If you configured the LEGO software to work with the USB tower, then that's your problem. (I think)

hmm. the only thing is, that it works with the small programs.. if it didnt work at all, itll be somewhat more explainable.
i havent configured the lego software, i dont think,. is there a way to?

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

hmm. the only thing is, that it works with the small programs.. if it didnt work at all, itll be somewhat more explainable.
i havent configured the lego software, i dont think,. is there a way to?

The small program thing actually makes sense though. The COM tower will just shutdown if it isn't kept alive (I thought that the mere act of sending data to it would do that, but maybe not.), so after the first 5 seconds of transfer, it gets turned off. If it's a small program, it gets sent in that time. Otherwise, it gets interrupted and the RCX erases what it did have, because there's no point in keeping the incomplete program.

[Gamer930]

I just talked to greencactus3 on AIM.
It seems also to me that there is a problem not being switched to Serial Tower.
He did clear out the RCX of all programs using the Reformat thing.
If it takes little programs there can't be a problem with the USB to Serial converter or not being on the right COM port

I do not have the software in front of me could someone tell him how to switch to Serial using RIS 1.5??

[Astronouth7303]

The serial tower stays on for 3 seconds after the last transmit, during which it can recieve messages. It is woken up when you send data. There is a hack to make it stay on when the RTS pin is on.

Originally Posted by Gamer2028

I do not have the software in front of me could someone tell him how to switch to Serial using RIS 1.5??

In RIS 2, it's in the options screen, or when you install the software. If it isn't there and the help file won't tell you, it might not support USB (Though the drivers for the COM/USB thing should set up a virtual COM port).

Try using CommTest from my site. (http://endeavour.zapto.org/astro73/programs/) The current version has some bugs, I'll tell you in it's fixed.

Send anything out the COM ports (try each one) and look for the green light.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Gamer2028

I do not have the software in front of me could someone tell him how to switch to Serial using RIS 1.5??

Isn't RIS 1.5 always set to use the serial? It doesn't support USB as far as I know.