Tech Log #008: Fixing comms bug
There was a bit of a problem being encountered after the Bowie rebuild. The XBees couldn’t communicate together. At first we were concerned this was going to be a hardware issue … that would be expensive parts. Alright, time to dive in to figuring out the bug.
First step was to see if any of the Xbees were receiving any data. Oh yeah, remember one of the previous issues with FTDI? This answer helped to fix the problem (from what we’ve seen, so far, until perhaps it will break again..).
Phew! What a relief! They were receiving data! Must be a code issue then. And wow, was it a code issue indeed. Meaning, there were sections of the code completely missing. The communications on that serial port were just vanished. What on earth! Well, anyway, we re-added it, and it was a huge relief to see the RSSI led from the XBee light up and to see Bowie move again, controlled by the Operator Interface.