I cannot get my robots to connect to Flowarm PLTW. Flowarm just keeps flashing “Auto”. We have a USB connection. There’s a blue light that turns on the board. We’ve gotten them to connect in the past but cannot get them to work this year.
Hi Klassj,
Please find below answers to your questions and comments.
By a blue LED, I assume you mean the PWR LED? See the SSC-32U manual, page 14 (bottom half) for details.
As a side note, the USB cable only provides power to the USB interface, not the rest of the robot. Therefore, a stable 6 V DC power source is required on VS1 for the robotic arm to work by USB (and connect to the FlowArm PLTW software) as shown on page 20.
I have to ask just in case, but do you know of any differences in your setup (computer, OS, updates, hardware, etc.) since it last worked properly?
Typically, this type of issue is related to a drivers issue or VCP (Virtual COM Port) access. Please follow the troubleshooting steps below. If you face any issues while doing so, please mention as many details as possible about it in your reply (including the step #! 
)
- First step would be to check if your VCP shows up properly. Please connect the SSC-32U/AL5D by USB to your computer.
- Open Device Manager. How to access it will depend on which version of Windows you are running and how it is configured. Typically, you can open the start menu and start for it there.
- In Device Manager you should have a category called Ports (COM & LPT). Expand (click the [+]) the category and see if you have a VCP there. If so, note down the COM port number (ex: COM224).
- With the AL5D still connected, turn on its power source (if not already powered).
- Download and install the SSC-32U diagnostic tool Lynxterm. You can download it here.
- On your SSC-32U, press the BAUD button once (near the Bee socket/USB port). The LED A should blink for a few seconds. If something else happens (no blinking at all, LED B blinks, or both) your board has the wrong baud rate. You can see details on how to change it back to 9600 (default value) in the manual on page 34 by using the button. Please do so now before moving to the next step.
- Run Lynxterm and click Setup to change the COM port to the one found before (in Device Manager). Once done click Connect.
- Once connected type “VER” in the black text box. The SSC-32U should respond with its firmware version.
Here is a screenshot of steps 7/8:
The SSC-32U uses a USB interface chip called the FT232. There has been a few issues over the years on Windows (especially with automatic updates) that caused some faulty drivers to be installed in a many cases. You can download the up to date drivers here and install them manually. You may want to perform a restart of the system afterwards.
Sincerely,