Our team uses an old (pre-2024) radio, and for some reason, FRC Radio Configuration Utility is unable to load firmware or configure it onto our radio. It says to “make sure you have launched .exe and not .jar” I have seen similar threads on here and tried all recommended solutions but nothing is working.
I recently updated the roboRIO to 2025.2, but it was giving issues before I updated it. Any help is appreciated.
I recommend reinstalling the radio configuration utility and running it as an administrator. Also, disable all firewalls and make sure you are connecting to the radio using the PoE port, which is the port on the left.
I haven’t encountered the specific error you mentioned, but these are the steps I’ve followed. Additionally, could you try another radio to help pinpoint whether the issue is related to the radio itself or the configuration utility?
I have tried all of that on two separate laptops. Still not working.
Please post a screen shot of the error message you are receiving.
There are a number of steps to follow that are needed to have any hope of success:
- Disable ALL network interfaces in Windows except the Ethernet interface that is connected to the radio. This includes WiFi, bluetooth networking, virtual network interfaces, etc.
- Make sure the ethernet cable is plugged into the jack closest to the power jack on the radio.
- Disable all firewalls on the Windows machine
- For configuring the radio it is essential to wait long enough after powering up the radio before trying to configure. The directions in the tool say “Wait for the Power Light to turn and stay solid”. What is not obvious is that it will initially come on solid and then after quite awhile it will blink and then turn solid again. You need to wait for that.
- If the power light doesn’t stop blinking, you should reload the firmware and then try again.
Directions for programming the old radios are at: Programming your Radio — FIRST Robotics Competition documentation
If you’re still having trouble tomorrow I’ll invite you to our team zoom meeting and we can try a few more things.
Another thing that likely may have been the issue that I just realized may have been the problem is that I had the RIO plugged into the second Ethernet Port, and that was likely causing the error. I unplugged the RIO and it seemed to help.
I ended up having to reconfigure a radio today and that required a firmware update because the firmware was too old. I saw the same kind of failures you did and for me as well the problem was having something (in my case a network switch with nothing else plugged into it) plugged into the 2nd radio port.