Help out a teacher trying to figure out his new Vex IQ setup

VEX IQ General Discussion IQ Technical Discussion
1

Hi, my school just bought a classroom set of clawbots. I’m having a really tough time setting them up. Building the robot was fine but connecting to our school macs is incredibly frustrating. I’ve downloaded Vexcode IQ Blocks for my kids but when I plug in the brain it doesn’t seem to recognise that I’ve plugged anything in.

I figured it might need an update so I downloaded the VEXosUtility app. I follow the instructions but my computer doesn’t even seem to realise I’ve plugged anything into the USB port. Seems like I need to update firmware or something to get it to work with the computer but I can’t figure out how to install anything because my laptop doesn’t seem to know the brain or controller or anything even exist.

Originally it just kept crashing. Now I just get the screen saying “Controller must be updated to latest version.”

Can anyone help? This is driving me crazy.

2

You need to get help from your schools IT department on getting the software loaded. Most schools lock computers down. You’ll need their help to allow the drivers to load.

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3

This is just on my personal computer. I’m setting up for myself before the kids get started. I’m running mojave if that helps in any way.

4

Download another software called VexOS and connect your brain to your computer. That software should be able to help update your hardware.

5

Sorry, that’s a Mac and I’m only fluent in VEX for Windows and Linux.

But a few things to check.

  1. You have a good USB cable? There are some cheap ones out there that expect to be used only for power, so they only have the power wires.
  2. Brain has a charged battery and powered up? It needs to be on for the computer to see it.
  3. Do you have another computer you can try?

Good luck!

6

Make sure that both the VEXosUtility and VEXcode IQ Blocks are not open at the same time - they will conflict with each other.

If you continue to have issues with the Mac not recognizing the IQ brain, I might suggest trying another USB cable (a known working one) to ensure it’s nothing as simple as that.

In terms of “Controller must be updated to the latest version”, you’ll need to have the VEX IQ Controller connected via the blue tether cable to the VEX IQ Brain, and then run the VEXosUtility program to update your firmware.

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