I added a second-generation color sensor and second-generation distance sensor to a robot with a first-generation brain. I was having problems, so I plugged the robot into my PC to check for updates or see if the sensors were recognized.
When using the VEXOS utility, all the other sensors, motor, and brain, showed up, but the ports with the new sonar and color sensor were blank: as if nothing was plugged into them.
Has anyone had this problem?
Does anyone have experience using the second-generation sensors with a generation one Brain?
Thank you
1 Like
Check to see if they show up in the devices screen, I’m pretty sure they are not supported by the vexos utility and we don’t support any firmware updates for them on gen 1 hardware.
3 Likes
Yep, Gen 2 devices don’t work on Gen 1, it’s part of the “Hey, you need to buy new brains/controllers for your program”. Which I really don’t understand since VIQ stuff seems to be flying off the shelf (there was a huge backlog of orders) and new schools are getting classroom programs (which is really VEX money maker) and new VEXIQ teams.
They are I2C devices, the code is done (I’m going to assume it’s in C) so it could be ported.
@Foster you misunderstood what I said I think.
IQ generation 2 sensors, that is, the new optical and distance sensors, are supported by generation 1 brains that are running the latest vexos. They are supported by VEXcode and should show in the devices screen. What we do not support is updating sensor firmware using the vexos utility. They are also not supported by older, now obsolete, programming environments such as Modkit.
9 Likes
Hi @jpearman, I had read this:
That seemed to imply that their brain was up to date with the OS.
I read your comment to be that the new devices were not updated on the V1 brain, not that you could not update the firmware in the sensors.
Coupled when the new V2 brains coming out, me reading that new sensors would not be backwards compatible (and that may be a repeat of the “update sensor firmware” issue.
Sorry about the confusion. But to recap:
- All V2 sensors will work on V1 brains, the V1 brain needs to be the most recent release.
- In the event there is new firmware for the V2 sensor, a V2 brain is needed to do the firmware update. Which brings a new question. Will the V1 brain know that the sensor firmware needs to be updated?
Again, sorry about the confusion on my part.
3 Likes
Actually this is really important to understand - effectively obsoleting a gen 1 brain because it can not use the new sensors seems to me a very bad approach a push many teams and schools to go like what? I need to replace a perfectly good brain because the gen 1 color sensor and distance sensor are finally update to work but oops not completely for my gen 1……
That to me was s a problem……
Thank you, Foster.
I have 30 IQ robots in my lab. This year, I ordered 30, generation-2 optical and 30 distance sensors. I also ordered 15 generation-2 Brains to replace Gen 1 Brains. I have to mix and match sensors with my robots.
You are correct that Gen-1 Brains will not update Gen-2 sensors.
What I did today was hook up 12 sensors at a time and plugged in the Gen-2 Brain connected to VEXCode on my PC. The Brain immediately asked if I wanted to update the optical sensors. It did. Worked great.
The distance sensors did not need an update.
I then put a Gen-2 optical sensor on a Gen-1 Brain, and it works fine. The distance sensor works too on the Gen-1 Brain.
I do not know what I would have done if I did not have a Generation 2 Brain since the optical sensors all need a firmware update.
6 Likes