6.1 Introduction

BotBlox ARIES software is relatively new and hence it is likely you may encounter crashes or issues while using the software. Thankfully, none of these crashes will be related to the firmware running on the board, instead they will be UI glicthes or serial port errors that can typically be resolved very easily. The list below goes through some of the most common faults that the user is likely to encounter.

6.2 Serial Port Error

Symptom: ARIES will not connect to a serial device, and displays a Serial Port Error window with a long numeric code.

Cause: Usually this is related to an issue with program accessing the serial device because it is being used by another program, or generally unavailable. It can also be caused by not having the NI VISA driver installed.

Solutions:

• Close any programs that using the same COM Port
• Ensure NI VISA is installed
• Check if the COM port is actually working on the PC by using another serial program like PuTTY. If not, you may need to go into Device Manager and check the driver for the serial device is correctly installed
• Try another serial device if the steps above do not solve the issue

6.3 Cannot read BotBlox Device and program hangs

Symptom: ARIES cannot read the Chip ID, Board Type or Firmware Revision, and then the program hangs and is unresponsive to any further button presses.

Cause: 90% of the time this is caused by a loose connection between the BotBlox board’s serial port and the serial device. It can also be caused when a serial port is unexpected disconnected on the BotBlox device, making it unresponsive to further serial commands.

Solutions:

• First, initiate a hard stop of the program and re-run it, by pressing the the buttons right at the top of the application (Below the Edit and Operate dropdown menus). Now try connecting to the serial port again and clicking the BotBlox device Read button again.
• Double check your physical connections between your serial device and the BotBlox board. Hard stop and re-run ARIES, open a port, and try again. You may need to check that your RX and TX are the correct way round.
• Power cycle the BotBlox board, hard stop and re-run the BotBlox ARIES program and try again.

6.4 ARIES hangs after a read or write