VEX World Championship - Firmware Update

[tutman96]

Originally Posted by 254pride

254 has been encountering some problems with the new firmware and I was just wondering if anyone else has experience a similar issue. When VEXnet becomes disconnected for any number of odd reasons (i.e. keys got too hot, knocked loose, or power to the controller is interrupted) the robot does not simply stop responding; rather, the motors continue as they were the moment connection was lost. For example, if you are turning your robot and raising your arm and connection is lost, the robot starts doing 360's and attempts to raise the arm to the point of breaking. Connection cannot be regained without a power cycle. This error has been encountered by two of our teams so far. Has anyone else encountered this or can anyone offer suggestions?

We are programming with the latest version of robotC and the world championship firmware.

edit:
We have tried reverting to the past firmware and this eliminates the issue completely. This is why we suspect it to be a firmware problem.

Are you using the new Integrated encoder modules? Check this out if you are: http://www.vexforum.com/showthread.php?t=67840

[jpearman]

Originally Posted by 254pride

254 has been encountering some problems with the new firmware and I was just wondering if anyone else has experience a similar issue. When VEXnet becomes disconnected for any number of odd reasons (i.e. keys got too hot, knocked loose, or power to the controller is interrupted) the robot does not simply stop responding; rather, the motors continue as they were the moment connection was lost. For example, if you are turning your robot and raising your arm and connection is lost, the robot starts doing 360's and attempts to raise the arm to the point of breaking. Connection cannot be regained without a power cycle. This error has been encountered by two of our teams so far. Has anyone else encountered this or can anyone offer suggestions?

We are programming with the latest version of robotC and the world championship firmware.

edit:
We have tried reverting to the past firmware and this eliminates the issue completely. This is why we suspect it to be a firmware problem.

Can you give me some additional details about the robot's configuration. I did a very quick test this morning (2 motors, no sensors) but was unable to reproduce what you are seeing.

Do you have a procedure for creating a loss of VEXnet communication ? For example, does turning of the joystick cause this problem? Or does removing the joystick VEXnet key cause it? Or perhaps just moving the joystick out of range? There needs to be a consistent way of causing a disconnect that we can use to debug this.

Do all 10 motors continue to run? Or do the motors on ports 1 & 10 behave differently? Are these motors controlled from a PID loop or are they using joystick data directly? If joystick, is it analog control or button controlled? ie. push a button to set a value.

Are you using any IMEs? Are you using a power expander?

Just to confirm, ROBOTC V3.08 (VM 9.12) with worlds firmware 3.21 ?

The more information you can give the more chance we have of duplicating this and then coming up with a workaround if the problem is real.

[254pride]

Originally Posted by jpearman

Can you give me some additional details about the robot's configuration. I did a very quick test this morning (2 motors, no sensors) but was unable to reproduce what you are seeing.

Do you have a procedure for creating a loss of VEXnet communication ? For example, does turning of the joystick cause this problem? Or does removing the joystick VEXnet key cause it? Or perhaps just moving the joystick out of range? There needs to be a consistent way of causing a disconnect that we can use to debug this.

Do all 10 motors continue to run? Or do the motors on ports 1 & 10 behave differently? Are these motors controlled from a PID loop or are they using joystick data directly? If joystick, is it analog control or button controlled? ie. push a button to set a value.

Are you using any IMEs? Are you using a power expander?

Just to confirm, ROBOTC V3.08 (VM 9.12) with worlds firmware 3.21 ?

The more information you can give the more chance we have of duplicating this and then coming up with a workaround if the problem is real.

After reading this thread: http://www.vexforum.com/showthread.php?t=67840
It has become evident that the new motor encoders are the problem. I will continue the discussion in this thread.