Recently upgraded to Cortex for my classroom. When we were running with the PIC we would program the robot, turn it off, unplug programming cable and put the robot on the floor (or in the arena or whatever) and turn the PIC on and it would just start. The Cortex doesn't seem to have this behavior whether I program with A-A or wirelessly. I guess in some cases it makes sense (debugging) but there are certainly situations were we will not have a computer with us (and so not be able to hit start on the debugging menu). Is there a way to change this behavior? Sorry if there is an obvious answer, I've been searching around for awhile and haven't come up with anything that works.

Thanks,
Bill

I'm not sure if you can make it behave exactly like the PIC, but you can run your program without having the cortex connected. If you have code that is not in a competition template, just turn the Cortex on. It will look for a joystick link, and if it doesn't find one, will start running your program. From what I remember from experience, the wait time is somewhere around 15 - 20 seconds.

Thanks for the reply. My experience is that the code never runs when it can't find the computer or joystick. That coupled with all the wi-fi drops is making the debug cycle really clunky with lots of students following their robots with laptops tethered.

I'll look around for a jumper setting or a way to disable debugging...

Really? How long have you waited after turning on the robot? Was your code in any sort of template?

I've since found that if I select "download via USB only" it then runs immediately when I turn the cortex on. So that''s good.

That's correct, if you choose "USB Only", it will run your program right away. Keep in mind if you're using the joysticks, you cannot use this mode, since the Cortex will not try to establish a VEXnet connection at all.

In ROBOTC 3.05, the new Master firmware will allow the program to run after 15 seconds if "VEXnet or USB" is selected, even without a VEXnet connection. Depending on which version of ROBOTC you're running, the included Master firmware may not have this behavior.

Does this mean that if running with Vexnet and the connection is dropped, it will continue to run the program.