FAQ

We always want to provide you with the best support we can in building our products, and offer you quick and efficient solutions if you have any questions. To do so, we have assembled the most frequently asked questions on fischertechnik products for you in an easy to use FAQ. In our FAQ area, we answer all your questions on general, technical or even specific topics. If your question is not listed in our FAQ, you are welcome to contact our fischertechnik experts via our contact form. We will be happy to help you, and are always working to improve our customer service for you.

FAQ / häufig gestellte Fragen

General FAQs

Technical FAQs

ROBOTICS FAQs

Training models FAQs

General FAQs

Even though we take the greatest possible care and monitor our products, fischertechnik does receive complaints from time to time - we’re very sorry to hear about your issue. Please click the Service/Contact tab to inform us about your problem. Please include the product designation, missing / defective part number, and production number on the red slip inside your construction set in your message. We will contact you as soon as possible.

Technical FAQs

The most probable cause for the malfunction is that either the red and green plugs on a motor, the blue and yellow cables on the track sensor or M1 and M2 are swapped. Then the model always swerves in the wrong direction and loses track instead of following it. You can easily try this out:
Hold the model in the air just above the track. If the model is directly above the track, both wheels should turn forward. If one of them turns backwards, the plugs are reversed on that one. If you hold the model slightly to the left of the track, only the left wheel should turn forward, if you hold the model slightly to the right of the track, only the right wheel should turn forward. If the behavior is exactly the opposite, swap either M1 and M2 or the yellow and blue wires at I2.

The fischertechnik battery pack is a powerful power supply for all fischertechnik models. The integrated short-circuit protection ensures a high level of safety when setting up and operating the models. To ensure that the performance of the battery pack is maintained over the long term, we recommend that you observe the following instructions:

Only the fischertechnik charger should be used to charge the battery pack. It constantly monitors the charge status of the battery pack during charging and automatically switches to trickle charge as soon as the battery is full. This prevents the battery pack from being overcharged and thus damaged.
An empty battery pack must always be disconnected from the connected loads (e.g. motors, lamps, interface, IR receiver). This can be done by a switch or by pulling the plugs. This prevents the battery from being deep discharged and permanently damaged.
If a battery pack is stored for a long period (more than 2 months) without being used, it will slowly discharge (self-discharge). It should therefore only be stored fully charged and recharged after 2 months at the latest. This prevents the battery pack from being damaged and permanently losing capacity.

ROBOTICS FAQs

With regard to the TXT Smart Home kit we place particular importance on data security.

To this end, all data sent (both the data sent by TXT to the fischertechnik Cloud and the data transmitted from the server to the WEB browser) is transmitted encrypted with certificates (https standard, green padlock in the WEB browser).
The TXT controller is protected by a secure so-called root password against external hacker attacks as to the best possible extent.
If pictures are taken by the fischertechnik camera, this is indicated by an optical signal on the model in order to guarantee that nobody is photographed without their consent. Pictures are only taken and send if the user has logged in on the dashboard in the WEB browser with their password.
Data that the individual user saves in the cloud is protected via a personal account with password access and is only accessible to the respective user. The very secure OAuth2 Industry Standard is used for this. For personal data, fischertechnik fulfils the statutory requirements of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation in full.
The servers on which the fischertechnik Cloud is operated are located in Germany. This guarantees that the strict European requirements for storing data are complied with.

(!) Safety note: TXT Controller firmware version 4.2.4 or higher (!)

Please observe the following notes if the TXT Controller is operated in the so-called WLAN client mode:

Always activate the WLAN encryption WPA2 in the TXT WLAN settings when you connect the TXT controller in WLAN client mode to a WLAN network.
Do not operate unknown or untrusted devices in the same wireless network with the TXT controller.
Select WLAN keys correspondingly complex, e.g. the preset WLAN keys of the current routers
Do not give the WLAN key to third parties

ROBOPro 4.2.x with the TXT controller under Windows/Mac/Linux Windows:

The current ROBOPro version runs under Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Mac:

On Mac OS X, ROBOPro can be installed using the commercial program "CrossOver" and with the open source software "WineBottler" (http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/). No additional drivers are required for the TXT controller and all interfaces (Bluetooth, USB, WLAN) are supported.

Alternatively, ROBOPro can be used when it is installed in a Windows virtual machine. In this case, USB and WLAN are supported. Please note that you need a fully-fledged Windows license.

Linux:

With the help of the program wine (https://www.winehq.org/) ROBOPro can also be installed on Linux. For this, the following command must be executed on the console:

msiexec -i Setup.exe.
No additional drivers are required for the TXT controller and all interfaces (Bluetooth, USB, WLAN) are supported. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and OpenSuse 13.2 distributions were tested.

Is there a power failure?

Please check whether the display on the ROBO TXT or TX controller is working or the light-emitting diode on the ROBO interface is lit.

Is the TXT/TX controller or the ROBO interface correctly connected to the computer?

Please carry out a visual inspection.

Is the USB driver installed correctly?

For the driver, see "C:\ Program Files (x86)\ROBOPro\USB Driver Installation."

Training models FAQs

The 9V training models are controlled with the fischertechnik TXT controllers. The demo programs for the TXT controllers included are already available and can be individually adapted. The demo programs are created with the fischertechnik ROBOPro software. Optionally, the C/C++ interface of the TXT controller can also be used.

The 24V training models, on the other hand, do not include a controller. Therefore, the software for the 24V training models must be created by the user. Another difference is the power supply of the actuators, which is different for the 9V and 24V training models.

PLC programs for the 24V training models are unfortunately not available from fischertechnik because there are so many different hardware and software solutions in the PLC field and we offer the model exclusively without PLC. What is available, however, are sample programs for our ROBOPro graphical software, which is used to program the 9V versions of the models. With the help of these programs the programming structure can be understood.

The free update version of this software can be found at the following link: https://www.fischertechnik.de/-/media/fischertechnik/fite/service/downloads/robotics/robo-pro/documents/update-robopro.ashx

The example programs are located in the subfolder Example Programs/Training Models.

The didactic booklet on the e-learning portal also explains how the programs for the factory simulation can be structured.

The TXT Controller is required for the connection to the environmental sensor, light sensor, NFC reader and the USB camera in the model. Furthermore, the TXT Controller communicates with the fischertechnik Cloud and is a necessary component of the Learning Factory 4.0 24V. What it sends to the ft-Cloud via the MQTT protocol is translated by the Raspberry Pi into OPC/UA and routed to the PLC.

The Raspberry Pi allows communication in MQTT as well as in OPC/UA. This is clearly illustrated in the block diagram that can be found in the download area of the product detail page. This is clearly illustrated in the block diagram that can be found in the download area.