System Freeze with serial output

[ay2b]

On multiple occasions I have had both my laptop and the cRIO freeze up. (If it were just the laptop, I'd likely blame it on Windows, but the cRIO is freezing too, so I think it's something more.) This seems to only happen when my laptop is connected to the "console" (i.e. serial port) on the cRIO. Has anyone else experienced similar problems? Does anyone have a solution?

I'm not sure how much of this is relevant, but here's my setup:
- Laptop runs Windows Vista 32-bit
- Laptop ethernet cable plugged into Driver Station
- Laptop connected to cRIO via USB->Serial adapter and then null-modem cable
- PuTTY used to communicate from Laptop to cRIO
- cRIO running test code written in WindRiver, deployed using the "make it run from boot" method, not the "deploy to RAM" method
- cRIO test code allows joystick to move servos
- Printing done via ShowActivity() function
- cRIO/WindRiver/LabVIEW/etc have the "v2" update; v3 just came out today, so I'll try that this evening to see if it has any effect

Everything seems to run fine for a while -- I deploy code to the cRIO; I reboot it via the "reboot" command on the serial console; the code runs and prints output to the console; sometimes I repeat this process multiple times. After a while, both the laptop and the cRIO freeze, requiring a power-cycle on the laptop and pressing of the "reset" button on the cRIO. I am not 100% certain that the freeze is tied to the console communication, but I have not have any problems when the serial port was not connected. I have not tested to see if it's related to a specific amount of data being printed, or rate at which data is printed.

I have tried with multiple different test programs on the cRIO (though they have all been via WindRiver). I've tried with and without the camera. I've tried with and without a LabVIEW dashboard running on the laptop. None of this seems to make a difference.

So far, I have not tried any alternative hardware configurations, other than not connecting the serial cable (I'm not sure if I've tried connecting the cable but not running PuTTY), but it would be nice to find a solution that allows me to use the serial port.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[wt200999]

I have had a similar problem, except it does not require a reboot. The scariest thing is that the robot doesn't just freeze up, if freezes up on the last command it was given, so if its driving it continues to drive even if I switch it to autonomous. It only stops driving if I put it in disable.

[virtuald]

I am also having a semi-similar problem -- except my cRIO continues to respond to the joystick input, but the console output freezes.

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?p=25532