How I killed my BOT120...

[WilOldOne]

After building and happily testing my brand new BOT120 using the Programming Editor (the 'bot behaved perfectly) I decided to tinker with Logicator 3.4.2.....

Things continued to work properly until I downloaded the Live ICE debug code. At that point the 'bot would no longer be recognized by Logicator OR Programming Editor.

I tried everything, the hold reset button and download option. Reinstalling the USB drivers for the axe027 cable (on Windows 7 64 bit). The cable COM port was properly being recognized by BOTH programs, but both programs were reporting that there was nothing at the end of the cable! Downloading that code apparently had overwritten the PICAXE BASIC code (and bootloader?) code in the 20X2 chip. (I "bricked" it!) The chip is soldered to the blue "motherboard" and there is no way (for me) to replace it.

After about a day of more wasted effort to revive the little 'bot I decided to give it away as a "push toy" for a small child. He is now happily pushing it on the floor (I think he has already worn the rubber off the wheels!) He has no idea the new "toy" he is playing with is probably the most expensive he will ever own as a child!

One way I could resolve this was to buy a second BOT120 as my cable was good and the place I purchased the 'bot from refused to refund the "bricked" little blue 'bot.... (I messed up and told them the 20X2 was "bricked".)

But I have decided NOT to do that and my tinkering with PICAXE chips is at
the end....

This is my first and last post on this forum and is an absolutely real story that unfortunately happened to me, so if there was another "fix" I will never know about it as I refuse to take back a child's new toy...

The BOT120 is still a fantastic little robot, just don't do what I did...

 

[hippy]

Welcome to the PICAXE Forum.

It's unfortunate you gave away your Bot, assumed you had bricked it before posting to the forum; if you can get it back you will most likely find it still works.

The problem will likely be that the PICAXE is waiting for something to happen and whilst it's doing that will not be responding to download initiations - That's highly likely after downloading the Live ICE code.

The solution to that is a Hard Reset as described on Page 18 of the BOT120 datasheet; power off, initiate a download, then power on and everything should be fine.

The button on the BOT120 mainboard is not a Reset button, just a normal control button which can be used to signal the PICAXE, so cannot be used to reset the PICAXE. This is also described on page 18.

 

[WilOldOne]

Update:

I got my Microbot BOT-120 back! I saw the childs parents again and asked if he ever played with the little blue "truck". She said no and asked me if I wanted it back. I accepted it gladly and it looks like the kid may have never touched it! (Both rubber tires were still on and properly in place!) I asked "why?" and she said he thought it was "ugly". Good news for me!

After quite a bit of experimenting I found out my AXE027 USB cable had gone bad (no output at all). Substituted a new cable and did a "hard reset" (Thanks for pointing that out, swore that was a reset button...) and my little blue bot is back. Works great!

Now I plan on developing some of my own sensors for the bot and I am interested in a project with a "bigger" PICAXE chip like a 28 or a 40 pin. (A full size bot would be way-cool.)

(And it IS NOT an ugly bot! I think it is rather cute! )