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Propeller Tool Problem — Parallax Forums

Propeller Tool Problem

MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
edited 2007-03-24 18:04 in Propeller 1
I've been trying to download programs the my PropBot, but almost evey time I do, the Prop Tool locks up at "Scanning COM5"(the PropClip is connected there). I don't understand what's giong on.
RoboGeek

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"I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

Adam Savage, Mythbusters
www.parallax.com
www.goldmine-elec.com
www.expresspcb.com
www.startrek.com
·

Comments

  • rokickirokicki Posts: 1,000
    edited 2007-03-06 20:32
    Does it ever work? What happens when you hit F7? Does this consistently work, or not? Are you powering your robot with
    batteries?
  • BergamotBergamot Posts: 185
    edited 2007-03-06 21:29
    You aren't by chance using Windows Vista, are you?
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2007-03-06 23:33
    I have had this problem, it has something to do with Windows and how the OS "breaks down" over time; in that the problem only appears after Windows has been running for a few days. I have found that a reboot of the machine always takes care of the problem. Let me know if you still have a problem when you are a "fresh" system.

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    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • hinvhinv Posts: 1,253
    edited 2007-03-07 03:20
    Sound's like another good reason to get away from Windoze. Linux really isn't that bad. Just support one of them like Slackware, or SuSE, and the people that run the other flavors would be supported by the forum.

    I also have a problem with the tool. If I double click on a .binary file like FemtoBasic.binary, it launches the tool, and then says something to the effect "file not found" if I then close that error dialog, and go back to windows explorer and double click on it again, it opens up correctly.
    If I was using the propeller tool for a .spin program, and then try to double click on a .binary file either on the desktop or windows explorer, the propeller tool just hangs.

    Thanks,
    Doug
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    edited 2007-03-07 09:21
    RoboGeek said...
    I've been trying to download programs the my PropBot, but almost evey time I do, the Prop Tool locks up at "Scanning COM5"(the PropClip is connected there). I don't understand what's giong on.
    RoboGeek

    Yeah, I had a similar problem until I disabled a couple of added PCI serial ports on COM3 and COM4, then it works. Don't ask me why especially when you consider you are running the microslop virus that has infected practically all PCs. If only new application software and drivers were written for Linux, how sweet life would be.

    *Peter*
  • dandreaedandreae Posts: 1,375
    edited 2007-03-07 17:18
    FYI, this issue has been solved.· It turns out that it was related to some other software called "Weather Bug".· Once it was·disabled everything worked fine.

    Dave


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    Dave Andreae

    Parallax Tech Support·
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-10 02:33
    The Prop Tool is still not working. Chris Savage suggested installing SP2(Service Pack 2), but it still doesn't work. Parallax Tech Support has been a major help(I LOVE PARALLAX!!!!).
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com


    Post Edited (RoboGeek) : 3/10/2007 2:40:55 AM GMT
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-10 02:42
    Do you have access to another PC you could try this on. That would at least help narrow things down a bit. The fact that it was working makes me think perhaps something got damaged somewhere.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-10 02:47
    I only have one PC that has XP on it.If you want to know what has been tried, talk to Dave Andreae. He's who I talked to the most at Paralax Tech.
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com


    Post Edited (RoboGeek) : 3/11/2007 4:58:20 PM GMT
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-10 23:19
    UPDATE:
    When my user on the computer is a limited account, the Tool works perfecxtly. When I change the user to an administrator, the Tool stops working. This I don't understand!
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • Paul Sr.Paul Sr. Posts: 435
    edited 2007-03-11 12:50
    RoboGeek said...
    UPDATE:
    When my user on the computer is a limited account, the Tool works perfecxtly. When I change the user to an administrator, the Tool stops working. This I don't understand!
    RoboGeek

    I would suggest you uninstall the tool and reinstall it from an Administrator account.
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-11 16:56
    Already tried that, but thanks for the suggestion.
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-12 15:35
    Okay, you may end up having to uninstall the software and then remove a registry entry before re-installing. It may be there is a corrupted entry...

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-12 15:54
    How would I remove a registry entry? (I don't know that much about changing internal settings.)
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 755
    edited 2007-03-12 17:17
    Hi RoboGeek,

    Please call Chris in tech support so he can walk you through uninstalling and cleaning the registry key that the Propeller Tool creates.

    Meanwhile, I'm trying to find the best way to either duplicate your symptoms or to at least diagnose them.· Most likely, this will involve me writing a little test program for you to run on your machine which will report events that I can use to narrow down the source of the problem (hopefully).

    If the registry thing, with Chris, doesn't work, please hang in there and I will contact you either in this post or privately to try to find the solution for you.

    Thank you for your patience.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-12 18:06
    Thank you very much! Parallax has the best customer service I have ever seen!
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 755
    edited 2007-03-12 23:05
    Hi,

    Chris told me that the "cleaning" didn't work. It sounds like your last test did not use the user login that was set to "limited access", however. I think this problem has something to do with security permissions; though it doesn't make sense.

    Can you try using a "limited access" user login again to see if the Propeller Tool works properly?

    Thanks.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.

    Post Edited (Jeff Martin (Parallax)) : 3/12/2007 11:53:53 PM GMT
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 755
    edited 2007-03-12 23:52
    Hi RoboGeek,

    Please download the attached zip file and extract it's contents to a folder of your choice.

    It contains a modified version of the Propeller Tool, plus a little program to help us narrow down where the problem is occuring.

    1)·Run the Debugger.exe program.· It is a stay-on-top window that will receive and display messages from the Propeller Tool that was also in that archive.· Keep this program open while you perform the following steps.

    2)·Run the Propeller Tool v1.05.4 (Test 1), and try the same thing that causes it to lock up on COM5.

    3) Go to the Debugger program, click Save and save the result to a file (give it a descriptive name please).

    4) Now, close both programs and perform steps 1 through 3, again, in the situation where it does not lock up (I believe this is when you are logged on·with a "limited user" account).· Save those results too (please indicate in the file name if it worked without locking up).

    5) Email the results (the two files you generated from steps 3 and 4) to us at: support@parallax.com

    Thanks!

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
    zip
    zip
    Propeller Tool v1.05.4 (Test 1).zip
    945K
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 755
    edited 2007-03-13 20:28
    Hi again,

    I reviewed the files you sent (thank you!).

    Please clarify the following:

    · 1) Did the Propeller Tool really lock up on each of the failures?· ie: it was unresponsive?· Did you have to kill it with Task Manager or something?· The results make it appear to me that it displayed a message indicating "No Propeller chip found on any COM port." followed by a listed of scanned COM ports.

    · 2) COM1 appears in every case except in the the successful one.· Did you disable it or did that happen on its own after you rebooted?

    · 3)·You said it worked after you installed the drivers and rebooted.· Do you mean that's what caused it to work on COM5 in the "Limited Success" result?

    · 4) Did you try with the administrator account again after the successful attempt with the limited account?·

    I'm going to study the code at the point that the results file ended to see if I can determine any other course of action.

    Thanks!

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.

    Post Edited (Jeff Martin (Parallax)) : 3/13/2007 9:26:14 PM GMT
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-13 22:14
    1) As a computer administrator it locked up and I coudn't end it with the Task Manager(I had to almost literaly pull the plug on the computer!).
    2) That happened on its own.
    3) Yes.
    4) I did not, but I am going to try it soon.
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-13 22:23
    I just tried the test as an admin., and it worked! I posted the Debugger file. I hope it's solved!

    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    rtf
    rtf
    Admin. Success.rtf
    1K
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-14 17:35
    Well, I just tested it this morning, and it failed again. I rebooted the computer, and it started working again. I'm wondering if maybe I need to reboot before I try using the tool from now on?
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 755
    edited 2007-03-14 18:39
    Hi RoboGeek,

    Sounds like there's something on your computer causing the problem after it's been running for a while.· I have never heard of this situation before, though.· I don't see any evidence in the results files of anything going wrong that is the fault of the Propeller Tool.

    I guess it's not a security-related thing (Admin vs. Limited)... sounds like it just happened to work in your limited user account because you rebooted before logging in as a limited user.

    If I think of something more, I'll check back with you, but I'm out of ideas at the moment.· I hope the solution presents itself to you.· Try to think of anything else that may have something to do with it... such as: it works after a reboot until after you run a certain program, or something like that... maybe that will help you pinpoint what is causing the problem.

    Take care.

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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-14 20:03
    Thank you for all your help! Boy, this was a wild ride! I'll let you know if anything goes wrong again.
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2007-03-24 18:04
    Well, we've worked it out to a problem with the PropClip. Parallax is sending me a new one. Thanks for all your help!
    RoboGeek

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"

    Adam Savage, Mythbusters
    www.parallax.com
    www.goldmine-elec.com
    www.expresspcb.com
    www.startrek.com
    ·
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