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Why are they fried? — Parallax Forums

Why are they fried?

kiefer1kiefer1 Posts: 3
edited 2007-04-04 20:07 in General Discussion
For a grade 12 class programming project we have built a robot to compete in the robocup junior soccer competion. It is controlled using a Javellin on a Board of Education.
Everything has been progressing very well, but today we were suddenly unable to connect to the Javellin. The robot had been moving around and working fine for close to an hour, and then was switched off.·We worked on the·code a bit more then attempted to upload it to the Javellin, and the IDE could not detect it. I've attached a screen shot of the errors being given in the IDE. There·had been·no changes made to the hardware, so we disassembled the robot and replaced the board of education and javellin with different ones, and are getting the same errors again. After being disconnected, we are still getting the same errors from the boards,·so we've got two Javellins and two BOEs that are not working, and our teacher is not willing to give us any more until we can say for sure what is/was wrong. Any feedback or support would be greatly appreciated on ideas about what may be wrong. Thanks very much.

Kiefer.
St. Andrew's College Robotics Club
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Comments

  • QuattroRS4QuattroRS4 Posts: 916
    edited 2007-04-04 00:22
    Are you using the same programming cable as always - seems strange that 2 sets are causing the same error?

    Are you using a 'Real Serial' port or USB to serial device - I have had a Basic Stamp program no problem using a USB to Serial device - swapped the BS2 for a Javelin Stamp - on the same board and I couldn't program it ...

    On the IDE if you go to Project - Identify.What is the LoopBack value ? Can you·give a screen capture of your result after doing this..

    Quattro.

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  • Jon KeinathJon Keinath Posts: 146
    edited 2007-04-04 02:11
    It may sound silly, but have you tried a new set of batteries, or a power supply?

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    www.jonkeinath.com
  • QuattroRS4QuattroRS4 Posts: 916
    edited 2007-04-04 02:34
    Good point there Jon -

    Kiefer - you did say "robot had been moving around and working fine for close to an hour, and then was switched off. We worked on the code a bit more then attempted to upload it to the Javellin, and the IDE could not detect it. "
    I am assuming there was power to the Stamp !

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    'Necessity is the mother of invention'

    Post Edited (QuattroRS4) : 4/4/2007 2:38:35 AM GMT
  • kiefer1kiefer1 Posts: 3
    edited 2007-04-04 15:54
    Yeah, we tried two different wall power supplies, batteries, different usb cables, even different computers. Both boards had been working fine, and now neither will connect properly, even after being removed from the robot. We've pretty well accepted that they're fried. We're going to try the stamps in different BOE's to see whether its the chip or board or both that isn't working, hopefully it will just be the boards so we don't have to buy another set of chips. We thought it might have been a static discharge that killed the first one, so were extremely careful in installing the second one which died immediately. I'm thinking it must be some short in the circuitry of the robot somewhere, but we made no changes to it which is really frustrating. Does anyone know what else these errors might mean and/or if it’s fixable? Thanks again.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-04-04 15:57
    Hello,

    Is this a Serial or USB BOE? Is the computer a Laptop or Desktop model?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • kiefer1kiefer1 Posts: 3
    edited 2007-04-04 16:04
    Its a USB BOE, connecting to a Dell D610 laptop. Three of these laptops were tried and all got the same message, and two USB cables and two different wall power supplies have been tried with no improvements.
  • Robot FreakRobot Freak Posts: 168
    edited 2007-04-04 20:07
    There is a problem when programming the Javelin Module with the USB Board of Education.
    This is what Chris Savage told me:
    Chris Savage said...
    Hello,

    I attempted to cover this issue early on but was assured there were hardware issues. The USB BOE exhibits a known issue on some (rare) computer when a very small program is downloaded into the Javelin. This causes a timeout to occur. The problem doesn't appear to happen when using a Serial BOE with our USB to 232 adapter or when using a straight serial port. It seems to be timing related but what you will need to do is get access to a serial BOE or other development board and connect to a PC which has an on-board RS-232 Serial Port (preferably not a laptop). Try again, and if it doesn't work try the attached Prime Javelin program. Again, this really should be done from a direct serial port on a desktop. In the future avoid downloading very small programs onto the Javelin when using the USB BOE. I hope this helps. Take care.

    Chris Savage
    Parallax Technical Support
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