Board dead

[Golto]

We are having a problem with our 2007 RC. It is constantly getting stuck in the program state, without accepting a program.

We have tried doing a board reset, and it's not coming out of the program state. Power cycles don't work either, it just goes straight to the program state. HELP!!

[Michael DiRamio]

Try this: (from the IFI RC Q & A - http://www.ifirobotics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=91)

With main power applied, press and hold the Reset and Prog buttons at the same time. Release only the Reset, while continuing to hold the Prog until the Battery Power LED becomes solid green. Now release the Prog button. Now press and release the Reset button.

[Golto]

Sorry, that didn't work.

It came out of that state earlier, and we could program, but now it's back in that state!

[DBZBT2]

After looking at the RC board, and at the website you provided, the power is solid green, program reset and RC Mode is solid orange, the others are green and not dark....... could there be a possibility that the board is rejecting the signal.

Another observation that i noticed, when the downloading did work, it stated at the bottom that its erasing the old program and uploading the new one. Now its connecting and disconnecting for about ~2 sec, and then the error box saying that "the program button is being held" comes up.

[AndyB]

If I remember right, i thought I had this problem earlier and it turned out to be a bad radio. If you have another radio, try using that.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by DBZBT2

and then the error box saying that "the program button is being held" comes up.

I know this sounds obvious, but could the button really be stuck?


I know that we had an issue this year that sounds quite similar. We are working with a few students that are not used to using anything but the default code. So, programming the RC is new to them. It was common for a student to continue to hold the programming button down for 10+ seconds. This puts the RC is some weird state that I can't describe, but I know it is not good, but is recoverable.

When this happened, we would power down the RC and cold boot it again. That usually fixed it. But once, we got stuck where I think you are. We recovered by downloading the master code (.bin file) and then our user code.
After several deep breaths, we were back on the air.

[Bharat Nain]

Call IFI. They are the best people to consult with on such problems.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

What you describe was a common occurence as I remember with v13 of the firmware. IFI tried to fix it with v14 but quickly did a bug fix and within a week or two issued v15, the current version. Also you did not state if you had any other tally lights on the RC. You may have an intermittant short due to a wayward metal shaving between two pins in one of the connecters, outputs, inputs or relay outputs. Check with a flashlight and magnifier. Remember that the reset and programming button can be remoted and a short there could be confusing the RC. Check everything.

[Roger]

We've been getting this all the time (well, once or twice this year). Program State and RC Mode lights up on the robot controller, and it doesn't reset and it doesn't download -- just stuck inbetween.

Go to http://www.ifirobotics.com/rc.shtml, download the 2007 RC Master Code (zip, 2-27-2007) Version 15 (scroll all the way to the bottom), and unzip it to someplace convienent.

With the IFI Loader, browse to that location and click on the .BIN file (you have to change the file type to see it). Download it (obviously you have to be cabled properly).

After it finishes downloading you have to download your own .HEX code again and you're back in business!

I think the reason it happens is that we downloaded code but pulled the cable before it finished, making it in that inbetween state of erased old code and incomplete new code. We did the button trick Michael DiRamio suggested for about an hour until we tried downloading the master code again. Luckily we learned this before Manchester, as it happened there and we didn't have an hour to figure it out.

And because this is in the Electrical Forum, do make sure your wires are all proper.

[Golto]

I wish I knew that a few hours ago!

Oh well, we'll have the bugs worked out by next week!

[starsROBOTICS]

Originally Posted by Golto

We are having a problem with our 2007 RC. It is constantly getting stuck in the program state, without accepting a program.

We have tried doing a board reset, and it's not coming out of the program state. Power cycles don't work either, it just goes straight to the program state. HELP!!

we have had this problem today in the competition. what we did was untether the controlle while the robot was on press the reset button and prog button at the same time until the light stayed on. then press the reset button again. the light should be green then plug the tether back up. it should go back into prog state then you should redownload the program thats what worked for us

[Tom Line]

This happens to us a couple times a week. Our solution so far that has worked is simply to hold the program button down again for a 5 count and then download the user code. It downloads just fine.

[Jeff Waegelin]

We had this problem at the Quincy scrimmage. After a call to IFI, we tried the button trick and downloading new Master code. The button trick did nothing, but the new Master code solved the problem.