There’s three different potential issues that could occur on a Chromebook -
1. “No Internet Connection” - This error message would mean that the ChromeOS is reporting to VEXcode Blocks that it does not have a connection to the internet. This means either the Chromebook is not connected to the internet or VEXcode Blocks is being blocked by a system policy to prevent general Internet access. Behind the scenes, this check is querying “content.vexrobotics.com” to validate internet connectivity.
2. “Unable to access the compiler server”- This error message would mean theChromebook does have a valid internet connection (via ChromeOS system check + querying content.vexrobotics.com) but is not able to talk to our AWS-based Cloud Compiler. The cloud compilers currently live here:
IQ Blocks - Cloud Compiler: Host : prod.iq.blocks.vexcode.cloud Port : 5636 V5 Blocks - Cloud Compiler: Host : prod.v5.blocks.vexcode.cloud Port : 5636
So most likely issue is a network blocking port 5636 and preventing the cloud compiler from receiving a response.
3. The “Brain” icon on the toolbar never turns green - This error the Chromebook does not see the VEX IQ Brain / V5 Brain. This usually mean either a system policy is blocking access to the Brain (via Chromebook management settings) or the USB cable is not fully plugged in.
VEXcode Blocks on Chromebooks requires an internet connection to only compile the project into “robot code” - otherwise the software is fully offline friendly for editing and saving projects. Using a cloud-based compiler is not the long-term plan for VEXcode - but more of an intermediate step to provide programming functionality on ChromeOS devices. The long-term plan is to develop an offline compiler similar to Windows/macOS for ChromeOS devices.
I’ll turn the above information into a help.vex.com article this week for easier searching as well. Hopefully this helps, but if not, please let us know.