Hi guys,
My team is finishing up our robot for the Washington State jumpstart tournament. We are having some problems with our cortex and controller. We are not able to get a connection to upload any code and the cortex and joystick are not connecting to each other. Any ideas what the problem is. 
Have you been able to connect with the orange male male usb cable?
Have you followed the connection instructions outlined in the beginning of http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/VEXnet_Cortex_UserGuide_081811.pdf ?
I have been able too use that cable and I am currently following this guide:
http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/products/teaching_robotc_cortex/reference/VEXnet_setup_guide.pdf
However the cortex starts by flashing green and orange but then becomes solid red on the middle vexnet LED, according to the tutorial this could just be uncharged batteries :P.
Most common problem. re post if that doesn’t fix it.
Our VEXnet on our cortex is blinking fast, and we have replaced the batteries with newly charged ones. Is it necessary to have a backup battery in order to do this?
no the backup battery is not required. I found these by googling vex cortex blink codes
http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/VEX_Robot_Troubleshooting_Flowchart_0811.pdf
[http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/VEXnet_Cortex_UserGuide_081811.pdf
The troubleshooting flowchart looks very helpful in your case.
Cheers Kb](http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/VEXnet_Cortex_UserGuide_081811.pdf)
According to the flowchart, if you have a fast blinking LED on your cortex than the 7v Backup battery is not properly installed.
Only when connected to a competition switch or field control. The ROBOT led will blink fast red, it does not stop operation.
THis is a video of what the LED are doing.
No leds on the joystick? Perhaps try another joystick.
What firmware do you have loaded? It does not look like the behavior of 3.23 which is the latest.