Before any motor moves, three green boxes must light up in the FRC Driver Station: Communications, Robot Code, and Joysticks. Debug them left to right — each depends on the one before it.
Communications red. The DS cannot reach the roboRIO. Causes, in order of likelihood: (1) Wrong team number set in the DS Setup tab — it must match your roboRIO's configured number exactly. (2) Radio not powered or not configured — the radio needs power and a flashed configuration for your team number. (3) Wrong network — you are on the wrong Wi-Fi/USB. Quick test: open a terminal and ping roborio-TEAM-frc.local (replace TEAM with your number). No reply means it is a network/hardware problem, not a code problem. Tethering over USB to the roboRIO bypasses the radio entirely and is the fastest way to isolate radio issues.
Communications green, Robot Code red. This is Warning 44003: 'No robot code is currently running' — the DS reached the roboRIO but no program is running. Causes: (1) No code was ever deployed, or the last deploy failed — redeploy and watch the RioLog for 'Robot program starting'. (2) The code crashed on startup — scroll the RioLog/console for a Java stack trace; an uncaught exception in your constructor or robotInit kills the program instantly. (3) A known roboRIO 2.0 quirk where the program does not start despite being deployed — reboot the roboRIO. (4) Someone held the roboRIO User button for several seconds, or something on the robot is physically pressing it — check that nothing rests against the button.
Robot Code green, Joysticks red. The roboRIO is running but the DS sees no controller. Plug the controller into the DS laptop (not the robot), and in the DS USB tab drag it to the slot your code expects (port 0 by default). A controller that worked yesterday but not today is usually in the wrong slot after a reboot.
The disciplined workflow: never jump straight to 'my code is broken'. Verify Communications, then Robot Code, then Joysticks. The Driver Station's Diagnostics tab shows roboRIO/radio link state, and its Charts tab graphs round-trip (trip) time; rising or erratic trip time points to a flaky radio or Wi-Fi interference, which on a competition field you address by re-seating Ethernet and checking the radio's power. Most 'it won't drive' panics are solved in this checklist within two minutes.
the part worth keeping
Key takeaways
- Debug the three DS indicators left-to-right: Communications, then Robot Code, then Joysticks
- 44003 'No robot code' means the roboRIO is reachable but no program runs — redeploy, read the RioLog stack trace, or reboot the roboRIO
- Tether over USB to isolate radio problems; use ping roborio-TEAM-frc.local to separate network issues from code issues
Getting Started with FRCCommon Mistakes & Troubleshootinglesson 1 of 5
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Sources and corrections
This lesson is AI-assisted: drafted from primary sources, then reviewed and edited by hand. Errors still get through. When one is reported we fix it and write down what changed, in public, in the corrections log.
sources and further reading
- docs.wpilib.orgDriver Station Errors/Warnings (WPILib)
- docs.wpilib.orgFRC Driver Station (WPILib)
- docs.wpilib.orgroboRIO Status Lights Reference (WPILib)
clipped to this lesson
Articles that go further on this
The lesson gets you through the topic. These go wider on it, and they read in one sitting.
- 7 min readFRC "No Robot Code" & Driver Station Won't Connect: Full Fix ChecklistA verified, step-by-step FRC troubleshooting decision tree for "No Robot Code" and a Driver Station that won't connect to the roboRIO — most common causes first./blogread it
- 13 min readFRC Robot Radio & Networking: Setup, IP Addresses & the 2026 Wiring ChangeSet up your FRC robot radio and networking right: the VH-109, the 10.TE.AM.x IP scheme, the 2026 direct-wire power change, and fixing connection drops./blogread it
- 13 min readWPILib Won't Deploy: Every Cause and How to Fix ItYour WPILib deploy is failing? Work the decision tree: wrong folder in VS Code, team number, roboRIO image, JDK version, macOS network privacy. Fixes for each./blogread it
answer sheet
Lesson quiz
All 3 right completes the lesson. Miss one and only that question comes back, anything you already answered correctly stays banked.
0 of 3 answered
01On the FRC Driver Station, the 'Communications' indicator is green but the 'Robot Code' indicator is red. What does this tell you?
02When the Driver Station won't connect over the wireless radio, what is the recommended way to isolate whether the problem is the radio versus the roboRIO/code?
03On a competition robot using the standard FRC IP scheme, what address does the roboRIO normally obtain via DHCP from the robot radio?
Answer every question to submit.
All 28 lessons in Getting Started with FRCopenclose
01 / what-first-and-frc-are
02 / the-season-and-the-game
03 / culture-teams-and-roles
04 / getting-started-your-first-steps
05 / worked-examples-mini-projects
- Not read yet:Project 1 — Make a NEO Spin with the REV Hardware Client
- Not read yet:Project 2 — Deploy a Real Arcade-Drive Program
- Not read yet:Project 3 — Refactor into a Command-Based Drive Subsystem
- Not read yet:Project 4 — Build a Fuel Launcher for REBUILT
- Not read yet:Project 5 — A One-Button Autonomous Routine
06 / common-mistakes-troubleshooting
- Not read yet:The Connection Chain: When the Driver Station Won't Connect
- Not read yet:Brownouts: Why the Robot Goes Limp Mid-Match
- Not read yet:CAN Bus Gremlins: Missing and Conflicting Devices
- Not read yet:Software Gotchas: Inverted Drives, Scheduler Stalls, and Reading the RioLog
- Not read yet:Inspection-Day Failures: Bumpers, Size, and Weight
07 / advanced-techniques-case-studies
- Not read yet:Closed-Loop Control: PID + Feedforward for a Consistent Shot
- Not read yet:Swerve Drive: Omnidirectional Movement with YAGSL
- Not read yet:AprilTag Vision: Knowing Where You Are with PhotonVision
- Not read yet:Data-Driven Strategy: Scouting, EPA/OPR, and Alliance Selection
- Not read yet:Choosing Your Hardware Ecosystem: REV vs CTRE