ARC Shutdown Seat Error

Hmmm, okay, I understand. We had an update to the subscription panel in the user account section of the website that I think will be useful. I had it pushed now. There is a new section that shows the activity log, so you can see when seats are modified. You can compare that against what you're doing to see what's up.

What you're suggesting is totally accurate. I do it all the time because we run school classes with a limited seat count (I only have 50) and always delete/re-add as needed. This new activity log should help diagnose what's going on. Let me know if it's helpful

I've been doing a lot of troubleshooting and testing on this frustrating issue. I've ran through all of @Athena and @DJ's advice.

I think I've pinpointed the source of the shutdown stoppage issue.

It seems that the only time ARC will hang up and not shut itself down along with Windows (and I see this seat popup) is when the connection skill is actively connected to my EZBs. As mentioned above, I have three EZ Robot v4 EZBs that are connected through Windows com ports and the computers USB.

Here's what I found; If I disconnect the EZB's in the Connection skill, run the Utility.Shutdown(PC) command, ARC will properly shut down without the pop up and Windows will also shut down along with the computer. As expected.

First I'll comment on the results of Athena's suggestion list. I'll then continue:

1) Make sure only one ARC instance is actually running on that PC

Confirmed. Only one instance of ARC is running

2) Avoid triggering Windows shutdown directly from inside the same ARC instance

Confirmed. More on that below

3) Insert a delay before shutdown so ARC can finish closing its own resources

Done, No change in shutdown popup. More on that below.

4) Test a minimal shutdown script

Done, No Change. More on this below

5) Check whether the AI feature changed seat behavior

I have no way to do this.

So, to prove my theory on the cause of the ARC hanging up on shutdown I ran several tests with my current project and also a clean new project with nothing loaded except the connection skill and a javascript with the shutdown(PC) command in it.

Also, I now only have one computer seat listed on my Synthiam account. It's the Robot's onboard computer called ROBOT_BRAIN. My second seat is empty. All computers in my house with ARC loaded on them are shut down.

Here's my results:

Test 1.) FAIL Normal way I run the robot with my usual project:

• I Powered up the robot and it's onboard computer. Windows starts and auto starts ARC. ARC then auto runs it's INT script that connects 3 EZB's through Com 4,3 and 9 (Direct connect USB to TTL) connections. The INT script finishes starting up all looping scripts and other animations. The robot and ARC works as expected.
• When I run the shutdown(PC) script mentioned in an above posts that turn off running scripts, ARC and then Window, ARC hangs up on shutdown and nothing will proceed. I get the subscription popup and ARC will not shutdown.

**Test 2). *Success!! *** Everything is the same as Test 1 except that I manually disconnected the three EZBs before I run the Shutdown PC script.

• Everything loaded, scripts running and looping. Robot running properly
• I manually disconnect all EZBs in the Connection skill. All remains as before.
• I trigger the shutdown PC script
• ARC, Windows and the robot computer shuts down correctly. No ARC Pop up or stall.

Test 3), FAIL - New, clean Project.

• Only the connection skill and one javascript skill loaded holding the Shutdown(PC) command.
• In the Connection Skill, I manually connect to the three EZBs through Com 4,3 and 9 (USB to TTL).
• I trigger the Shutdown(PC) script and ARC hangs up after all scripts appear to be closed. Windows does not close and the computer stays powered on.

Test 4), Test 3), Success!! - New, clean Project.

• Only the connection skill and one javascript skill loaded holding the Shutdown(PC) command.
• In the Connection Skill, I manually connect to the three EZBs through Com 4,3 and 9 (USB to TTL).
• I manually disconnect all EZBs in the Connection skill.
• I trigger the Shutdown(PC) script, ARC, Windows and the robot computer shuts down correctly. No ARC Pop up or stall.

You asked for the wording on the popup I see when everything stalls. Now that I only have one seat filled it's slightly different. Basically it's asking me if I want to register the computer I'm using to the available seat. Here's the odd part; When I try, it asks for my password and when given, it says the Cast is not valid (or something like that). Even though I've been running ARC just fine until I shutdown.

Also nothing is showing in my Activity log in my Account info.

Here's some screenshots:

Any thoughts on how I can get back to normal?

OK, inserting a disconnect command in my shutdown script has worked. I can now shut down ARC with the Utility.shutdownPC() command after this script parks motors and stops running scripts. No more pop ups or stalls! Ya!

I did find a better command to disconnect ARC from the EZB's. Instead of disconnecting one connection at a time like suggested there is a command that disconnects them all at once. It's: ControlCommand("Connection", "DisconnectAll");

I'm still playing with the script sleep timing before and after the disconnect command. As @Athena I need to have these pauses to let motors park, scripts to stop and com ports to release. I want this event to be as quick as possible. I've got them down to 3.5 seconds and will try to shorten that up more.

To answer @Athena 's last question, No I haven't tried to disable just one connection at a time to see if there is any difference in ARC's shutdown stall. I'll give that a try at a later time.

Below is a new cleaned up and streamlined shutdown script that the AI in ARC helped me to write. It looks a lot sharper then the one I wrote awhile back that I posted above in my first post.

ControlCommand("Personality Generator", "PauseOn");
sleep(250);
ControlCommand("Head Section", "ScriptStart", "Bubble Full Up");
ControlCommand("Head Section", "ScriptStart", "Radar 1/4 Sweep");
ControlCommand("ADC Watcher", "ScriptStop");
ControlCommand("Weather Loop", "ScriptStop");
ControlCommand("Script Manager", "ScriptStop", "Power Pack Pull");
ControlCommand("Connection Check Monitored", "ScriptStop", "Connection Check");
function playCommand(skill, command, arg, delay) {
    if (arg !== undefined) {
        ControlCommand(skill, command, arg);
    } else {
        ControlCommand(skill, command);
    }
    sleep(delay);
}
var goodbyes = [
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_9",  delay: 2500 }, // Hasta La Vista
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_10", delay: 2750 }, // Love Long & Prosper
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_36", delay: 2500 }, // So it Goes
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_83", delay: 3500 }, // Pleasure to Serve
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_84", delay: 1750 }, // Goodbye
    { skill: "Soundboard v4", track: "Track_91", delay: 2750 }, // May the Force be with you
    { skill: "Soundboard 2",  track: "Track_19", delay: 4500 }, // My Power Pack needs charging
    { skill: "Bender",        track: "Track_28", delay: 3000 }, // Shows Over
    { skill: "Bender",        track: "Track_36", delay: 3500 }, // Wanna Kill All Humans?
    { skill: "Bender",        track: "Track_30", delay: 3500 }, // So Long Coffin Stuffers
    { skill: "Bender",        track: "Track_3",  delay: 3500 }  // Bite My Shiny Ass
];
var goodbyeIndex = Utility.getRandomUnique(1, goodbyes.length) - 1;
print("Goodbye: " + (goodbyeIndex + 1));
var clip = goodbyes[goodbyeIndex];
ControlCommand(clip.skill, clip.track);
sleep(clip.delay);
ControlCommand("Head Section", "ScriptStart", "Bubble Full Down");
ControlCommand("Left Arm", "ScriptStart", "Left Claw Closed");
ControlCommand("Right Arm", "ScriptStart", "Right Claw Closed");
sleep(2000)
ControlCommand("Connection", "DisconnectAll");
sleep(1500);
Utility.shutdownPC();

Can you please provide entire screenshots to see the message as well as the error?

Also, are you using the latest version of ARC?

@Customer Support, we must have been posting at the same time. If you look above your last post you will see that I used the ControlCommand("Connection", "DisconnectAll"); at the end of my cleaned up shutdown script that has solved my stalled shutdown problems.

I can recreate the error and pop up if you need me to. I can simply remove the connection disconnect command and let ARC stall.

Yes I am using the latest edition of ARC.

@Customer Support,

OK, here's the full screen shots you asked for. I removed the ControlCommand("Connection", "DisconnectAll") command in my new shutdown script and the popup and shutdown stall started up again. I took full screen shots of the process as requested. I clicked on the "Activate This Computer" button. and got the other two pop ups.

My guess is that this happens at shutdown (after ARC has successfully been running) of this computer and is already registered??? It's just a guess as I'm unskilled in this issue.

Hope this helps. From here I'm going to simply disconnect the EZBs before shutdown as a good workaround.

Thanks!

@Athena, goodbye! Thanks for the help.

Ha ha ignore her. She runs out of space if the convo gets too long.

I’ll have to take a deeper dive to understand what's happening. Can you tell me a screenshot of what computers you have in your seat list

Btw that new script is super clean. Nice work using random to select from the class array!