Game Controller Issues

At a recent tournament my team’s robot got stuck running autonomous during the tie breaker of the finals in elimination. As the match started, autonomous began to run. part way through, something happened to the robot causing it to become unresponsive and leaving all motors in their last state. for the rest of the match the robot was stuck with all the motors driving in some direction and didn’t change to usercontrol.

Officials told us that this was caused by an infinite loop in the autonomous code which caused the robot to freeze. The inifinite loop was said to be caused by a sack being caught in a wheel stopping it from reaching its intended point. I don’t believe this is the case. the wheels of the robot were not near any sacks when it became unresponsive. furthermore, the arm of the robot shouldn’t have been affected by drive wheels getting stuck because it is run in a completely different task. within this task, there are safeties running to prevent the motors from driving past a certain region as it did. this makes me believe something witht he game controller caused my robot to become unresponsive because my program can’t cause the arm to become unresponsive. has anyone else experienced this? what could have caused this?

Hi Jake,
There are a few things which could have caused what you’re seeing, including the infinite loop suggested by the event runners.

Are you using Integrated Motor Encoders on your machine? We’ve recently identified a firmware bug which can cause symptoms similar to what you’ve described. More information is here:

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/products/accessories/sensors/276-1321.html

-John

yes i have been directed by others to that thread and realise now that my issue is most likely caused by that same bug. thanks for getting back to me.