Just wanted to reach out and see if there is anyone else having connection issues with the latest TM Update 2024_25.2.0
I just helped a friend with his tournament today and we had consistent problems all day with getting the initial connection between the field controller and the Robot. At our tournament in November, we did not have this issue.
Initially we thought it was a bad wire or a bad port, but we eventually identified a pattern. The new model of brains were the ones having the issue (not always, but usually it was them). They would connect their controller to the rj45 wire and then run their program. Where most other controllers would be connected within 5 seconds. These newer versions were taking 1 minute. The teams figured there was something wrong with the port and would unplug. Eventually, we realized the delay and told them to wait a full one minute. We saw connection times from 35 seconds up to a minute and 20 seconds. Do nothing we said, and sure enough after a while they would connect.
We also observed every type of error under the sun. Wrong firmware, Radio not linked, the 47 error, the 0 error, field controller not up to date. But after rebooting both robot brain and team controller, we would see a good connection after 40+ seconds. These errors were less frequent than the 1 minute delays which were every other match.
I will mention that my friend was running an unconventional set up with a raspberry pi powered through a mini screen, but the field controller itself was powered via the provided AC adapter. I’m under the impression that the Pi is just for a connection to the TM Server. We were troubleshooting from the field controller itself. We did make sure every team was on 1.1.5 Firmware with the brain. We did not ever check to see if there was a pattern with team names being programmed in the brain, but that was a theory that was thrown around.
Our field controllers are unchanged after purchasing from vex in the past year, so they are field control 1.0.3b2. Firmware says 1.1.2. At the beginning of the day, we considered updating the Field Controller Firmware (these are true Field Controllers, not brains). But after downloading VS Code and the extension, we could not find Any documentation on updating the firmware of these. I would like to get a hold of that if the experts on here recommend updating the firmware.
Most of the errors in the Field controller log are saying FC:Radio (various different teams), I’m also seeing a lot of FC:Cable.
What suggestions do you have? I will be running a tournament in 3 weeks with these same field controllers. I really don’t want to have 1 minute delays every other match.
Thanks in advance.