If your Robox installation was successful, you should see the status of your Robox appear in AutoMaker after switching on the power. If this is not happening, there are a range of possible causes:

  1. Unstable/Intermittent USB serial connection - due to the high speed of serial data transfer to Robox, a stable USB connection is required. If you are experiencing problems when transferring prints to Robox or updating your firmware, this is likely to be the issue. This can also cause the USB hub connection to be made, but not the connection from the hub to the microcontroller. We have seen an issue with certain laptops, and more rarely desktops, where Robox is unable to connect successfully, and we think it's something to do with differences in grounding across different PC architectures. Fortunately the issue can usually be solved by making use of a USB hub as part of the connection (powered preferable, un-powered also often works). The USB hub chip acts as a 'repeater'/amplifier and is usually able to overcome these grounding issues for a stable connection. Before attempting any other fixes, or raising a ticket, please try using a USB hub and see if you are able to connect successfully.


  2. Driver installation fail. - This is a rare situation, but sometimes the driver fails to install successfully due to an installation error, you can try to reinstall them following the instructions here.
  3. Faulty USB cable/port - This is also rare, but the first thing to try is a different USB cable to try and narrow down the fault.
  4. Conflict with another USB serial device, or (on Windows) too many "hidden devices" - this is often indicated by a very high "COM port" number e.g. COM15. Please see here for information on how to remove unused "hidden devices" in Windows.
  5. Lack of 24V power supply - this can almost always be identified by a failure of the ambient light. If you switch on your Robox with the USB cable disconnected, you should see the ambient light illuminated in white. When you connect the USB cable and start AutoMaker, you should see the light change colour to the selected one in the top left. To change the colour of the ambient light, double click on the name (i.e. Robox in the graphic below) in the status icon within AutoMaker - this allows you to customise the colour and name of your Robox.


If you are still having issues connecting your Robox , please raise a support ticket to speak to one of our technical support engineers:


To allow us to handle your request as quickly and efficiently as possible, please try and complete all fields where applicable.