Hi,we are happy owners of a new VexIQ sensor kit but having some teething trouble. 1) ports 1 & 6 are not working – when building clawbot although I have managed to get ports 2,5,10 & 11 working occasionally. We are in the UK so no controllers yet so are unable to test ports in driver mode. Using just motors at the moment with 1.08 firmware and programming using Modkit web interface. Also where has the auto pilot feature gone that is described in building instructions but not on controller LCD list? Any suggestions on ports 1 & 6 and generally getting motors working?
ajm,
I’m sorry you’re experiencing problems, and also for the delay in our response. I’ve passed this thread onto our tech support folks so they can work with you on the port issue you’re seeing.
Regarding Autopilot mode – unfortunately, we are not ready to release Autopilot mode as this time. We do have the default sensor functions included in the default code, this allows users to unlock some basic autonomous behavior in their robots. Of course both the ROBOTC and Modkit programming languages allow users to create their own autonomous routines, and also to recreate the Autopilot functionality if they want to.
I’m sorry again for the inconvenience. I’ll have someone get back to you ASAP about the Smart Port issue you’re experiencing.
-John
Ajm,
I’m sorry you’ve been seeing problems with your system. I’m happy to help you resolve them.
We’ve had a few users mention similar issues. Typically it is caused by one of two things:
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The motors aren’t fully plugged in. I know this probably isn’t it, but can you please double check to ensure they’re all the way seated in the connector. “Fully clicked” into place?
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The firmware of the VEX IQ Robot Brain or VEX IQ Motors aren’t fully updated. Have you seen the VEX IQ Firmware Updater: http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexiq/software/firmware This utility will help you update everything.
Check out this video for help using that utility:
If neither of those things solves your problem, then I’m not sure what the issue is. Can you try those two things, and then if it doesn’t work contact us directly? If you email me at [email protected] or call in at 903.453.0802 I’ll be happy to help you talk through things and see what else we can try.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Let me know if there is anything else we can do to help.
Regards.
-Eli
Eli, ports 1 and 6 on the robot brain have now started to work with the motors - although when you switch the brain off/on it sometimes forgets motors are connected and then after another on/off power cycle it finds them again. Is there a function on the Brain’s LCD display where you can see(confirm) what the brain has ‘found’ in the way of connections eg motors and sensors? It would be good to know this without having to use the update firmware app where I did notice that when connected to the Firmware update app and power-cycle the brain the software always finds the brain itself but only finds connected items occasionally - do you think I have a faulty (robot) brain?
When the ports are not found I know that autonomous programs are executing ok as I have inserted LCD ‘Print’ functions at key points to help debug and they all change throughout the program as expected but the motors do not work.
Andy
Hi Ajm,
Thanks for taking the time to troubleshoot your system with us.
It is very strange that your motors will work one time, but not the next. Do this motors register under the VEX IQ Firmware Update 1.17?
How often are you able to duplicate the issue described above?
Please confirm.
Also regarding your main question, you can check the number of motors & sensors detected by an IQ Brain by looking under the “Brain” screen under the “Run” menu:
Driver Control>Run> up(^)
I hope this alleviates your problem and I will await confirmation for my questions above.
Thanks for your business & support.
-Eli
Hi Eli, thanks for the replies.
Regarding the firmware version you mention v1.17, is this the brain’s firmware level or the motors? I’m currently on v1.08 for the brain.
Regarding the connected motors, doing Driver Control>Run> Up(^) gives an Error: Radio Required. We do not have the radio’s and controllers in the UK yet. Is there another way of confirming connected devices?
ajm,
I’m sorry you’re still having problems.
We are working on an international 2.4GHz version of the VEX IQ radio, and hope to have it ready for release early next year.
It is an oversight that you cannot access the Driver Control>Run>up screen without a radio. I’ve added this to the list of items to fix moving forward.
Eli – Are there any other recommendations we can give ajm to help him get this resolved?
-John
Hello Ajm,
I hope you had a nice weekend.
I have not seen an issue where devices plugged into a Robot Brain occasionally do not show up after a reboot. From what I have seen already, either the devices always show up or they never show up. It is possible that damaged Smart Cables or excessive static electricity can contribute to problems which might cause this same behavior.
Since we won’t have 2.4 GHz radios fairly soon, there isn’t much else the user can do (beyond swapping cables to see if that isolates the problem).
Another route we can take is exchange your suspect brain & motors by new units, if interested please contact us by email and we will arrange the exchange with our United Kingdom office.
Regards.
-Eli
Thank you John and Eli for your replies. I will keep an eye on the performance of the Brain and if it does not improve i will contact you via email.
I would like to close this thread with one final question, is there a release date yet for the Autopilot software?
Thanks, Andy
Andy,
Unfortunately, we don’t have a release date on that software yet. Our firmware team has been hard at work on other higher priority issues to try to improve the user experience, and releasing that code has not been a priority. Including this mode requires a re-write of aspects of the LCD library, which makes it a bit more challenging. This is one of those “ohh, it’s simple, it should be done as soon as we have a few days to work on it” kind of things – we just haven’t had those few days.
-John