Robot controller will not program

[teh_r4v3]

Hey everybody, we're having some serious problems with our RC. Here are the symptoms:

When the OI is connected in any way (tether or radio), the program mode light is stuck at solid yellow. Nothing will stop it. When the OI is disconnected, the lights go green and we can start up the programming mode, but it doesn't work when we try to transfer. When we try to program, it starts going for a bit, starts to clear the memory, then gives a nice "Not connected..." error.

We've checked every electrical connection, disconnected everything from the electrical board except for the controller, battery, and associated breaker, and used the special reset button combo on the RC (hold down PROG + RESET, then PROG, etc...). We're kind of stuck here. We plan on calling IFI tomorrow, but do any of you have any ideas in the meantime?

[Mike Betts]

This may be obvious but have you checked your battery voltage?

[teh_r4v3]

We finally figured out what it was. Turns out something wacky was going on with our laptop's serial port! Effectively, it was corrupting the code on the RC. (We realized this when we plugged in last year's board, and upon programming it suddenly displayed the same symptoms, much to our dismay!) It seems to be cured now; the RC took the hex from another laptop easily. We reworked some BIOS settings on the laptop for the COM port and now even that laptop is working fine. Altogether, it's been a pretty bizarre night. Anyways, so if anyone is having a similar problem, try using another laptop!