Our brains have slowly been losing their ability to connect to our laptops. It’s definitely an issue with the brains, as we’ve tried to connect all the affected brains to multiple cables and computers, and nothing connects. The only clue we have is that when a working brain is plugged into a MacBook they register as “Virtual COM port” and brains that do not communicate show up as:
“Vex Robotics IQ brain
Vex Robotics IQ brain”
This means that while the brains are connecting to the computers, none of the vex software we use (robotc on windows 7 laptops and vexos utility on a MacBook) is reading them.
Can you check the VEXos version of the brains that “show up” vs ones that don’t? ( System Info on the LCD)
VEXos Utility is latest, 2.1.3.
I have had your issues with mixed VEXos versions on Windows 7 (and Macs). An “updated” previous installation of VEXos Utility could see 2.0.2 but not 2.1.2 or 2.1.3. Other installations on other laptops would fail at DFU mode.
I had to completely uninstall previous VEXos Utility and everything with VEX, and search for and delete folders with VEX bits, including RobotC. Then restart Windows, then download fresh VEXos Utility. If this works, but updating the brain fails, try restarting both the brain and VEXos Utility, and perhaps the laptop…
And finally sometimes the USB drivers need to be refreshed and it seems that plugging into a different USB port on the laptop can trigger that ???
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This is really interesting. I saw the same thing the other day but didn’t make the connection.
Kids had been programming all day working on their worlds bot. I noticed firmware was out of date so suggested the update before they do any more work so they know for sure everything is working on the newer firmware that will be required at worlds. So they update and from that point on, can no longer connect to the brain with that laptop. Change of laptop and everything was fine again.