I just discovered another mysterious error while working with SunSPOT.

For whatever reason I was no longer able to deploy an application via the base station to a free-range SPOT using the -DremoteId= switch. The log said among other things:

“Device reported: Verification of command failed: Signature verification failed”

But it also said that I should try to run “ant settime” on both the base station and the free-range SPOT (directly connected via USB). I did as instructed, but the problem remained.

In the end I disconnected the base station, hooked up the free-range SPOT directly to the USB cord, and deployed my app without the -DremoteId= switch. That did the trick. After that I was able to deploy to a remote SPOT again.