EMERGENCY! RA+ bricked 15 hours before my flight!

[gaberosenfield]

I'm supposed to get on a plane to go to my girlfriend's brother's wedding tomorrow morning. So I go to upload some updated code on my RA+ and I get this message:

The following features were automatically added:
Watchdog Timer
Version Menu

The following features were detected:
Dimming Signal
Date/Time Setup Menu
Standard Menu
Binary sketch size: 44,976 bytes (of a 258,048 byte maximum)
Rebooting Reef Angel Controller
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_getsync(): timeout communicating with programmer
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): failed miserably to execute command 0x1d
avrdude: stk500v2_cmd(): failed to send command
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_getsync(): timeout communicating with programmer
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_getsync(): timeout communicating with programmer
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): failed miserably to execute command 0x1d
avrdude: stk500v2_cmd(): failed to send command

And then it just keeps repeating this loop. The RA screen goes black, the red light blinks, then stays on and the screen never comes back and nothing is working! No lights, no pumps, nothing. I try again. Same result. I try unplugging the RA+ and plugging it back in: same result. I try uploading my code and pressing the reset button in the head unit right when arduino says "Rebooting ReefAngel controller": same result. Now I'm desperate? What happened? What do I do? And before anyone asks, no none of the electronics have been exposed to water.

Please help!

[Kungpaoshizi]

:/
Be sure to email Roberto!
Sorry I don't have better advice

[rimai]

Have you tried loading a different code?

[gaberosenfield]

Yes. I tried reloading the standard code, as well as some example codes. It is not an issue with the code. It is an issue with the head unit. Currently I have my old RA standard running the bare essentials. Hopefully that will be enough for the next 5 days while I am out of town. Unless there is some other way to reset the RA+, I think I'll have to send it back to you and get a new one or something...

[gaberosenfield]

I'm back from Texas now, and my tank has survived so far. What should I do about my faulty RA+ roberto? Should I send it to you? Will you send me a replacement? How does this work? If necessary I could drive down to Fremont to speak with you in person.

Thanks,
Gabe

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[rimai]

PM me for RMA number

[gaberosenfield]

So I took my RA+ board to Roberto. He was able to upload multiple different .ino files to it with no problem. I picked up a USB power cable from him and tried again with my computer at home: same problem, no matter what code I used. I tried again from my girlfriend's computer: same problem. I cannot upload anything to the RA+, even though Roberto had no problem on his computer. Could this be a mac issue that has suddenly appeared? Roberto was using a PC and both my girlfriend and I have macbook pros. I'm just at a loss now...

Just for clarification, I know it is something with the RA+, because I can upload to my old RA standard just fine. But even when I try to upload the exact same code to the RA+, it just bricks on me. And yes I am selecting the correct board and port on my computer before uploading. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Gabe

[rimai]

Do you have a PC you can try?

[lnevo]

Thats an odd one.

[gaberosenfield]

I don't have a PC... maybe I can borrow a friends... Has anyone else had problems with their Mac? It seems strange because it never had a problem before.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[gaberosenfield]

Ok, I finally got it working. I booted into windows on my macbook pro and tried uploading to my RA+ from there. It worked when I tried uploading an example code, but then had the same error as before when I tried uploading my code. After that, when I tried uploading the example code again, it wouldn't work. But arduino in windows gave a different error. It said "COM3 is already in use". I googled "COM3 already in use arduino windows 8". The results I got suggested that this was a pretty common error and that you need to either restart your computer or try switching to a different USB port. I did the latter and was able to upload an example code again.

I decided there must be something about my code that was causing this COM3 in use error to occur and brick my RA+. I went through and deleted all the unused variables in my code (remnants of past incarnations of my code that I never completely deleted) and commented out functions that I'm not using at the moment. I tried uploading again and VOILA! It works!

I don't know exactly what in my code was causing this error, but the COM3 error only appeared on arduino in windows, not in OSX. I also don't know why whatever was in my code that caused this never caused it before. All I changed from the last time my code worked to when this error started was I changed a timeout for one of the pumps in my automatic water change system from 30 minutes to an hour. I have no idea how that resulted in the COM3 error appearing.

Anyway, everything is working again now and I can finally breath a huge sigh of releif Thank you Roberto for your help!

[lnevo]

Very odd. The code should have NOTHING to do with your com port.