I bought my classroom robotics gear in two stages. Six kits with the PICs in '08 or '09 and then six kits with the Cortex in '10 or '11. I also got 6 more Cortex controllers for the older kits. Shown below are the kinds of cables that shipped with each kind of kit. I honestly don’t know which came with which but only the type on the right works. (This actually plagued me for years and I would just troubleshoot and swap things out until we could download to the Cortex.) The fact that only six worked wasn’t an issue because I never had a class with more than six robots running at a time. Now I need to use them all. Do the these cables require different drivers? In all the documentation I have seen they distinguish between pre and post 2012 but I’m pretty sure both of these are pre 2012. I’m happy to buy third-party if that’s what it takes but thought I would try to get this other cable going first. I will be running 12 computers so it would be OK if only one cable type works with some computers and the other type with the rest. Any thoughts are appreciated.
-Bill
MacBook Pro
Windows 7 Enterprise
RobotC 3.65
Vex Cortex w/VexNet
There has been some discussion a while back on these guys. Something about non-compliant chips being used in the cable making the new Prolific drivers not work. You can downgrade the drivers but it takes a lot to keep them happy.
I suggest tossing them and ordering the new style Vex programming cables if you can.
Or you could do something like this. I made a franken-cable that worked for me with a little persuasion to get the screw holders to line up. The cords are not attached solidly but it has worked just fine for 2+ years now.
If you have to buy 6 new cables, you could just get USB A male to A male cables. They’re cheaper and in our experience a little less finicky, but you don’t get wireless communication of course.
Thanks for the responses. I’ve got A-A cables for each kit that we fall back on when things aren’t working right. I didn’t realize until yesterday that you can go from controller to Cortex with the A-A, so I feel even better about it now. I will get the usb-serial adapters you suggested from Amazon as I had one lying around and it worked well.
So… I think I’m good. Amazing what you can get done after the students leave.
