13 replies to this topic

[Randster]

All, I think I've somehow bricked my Netduino board; although I'm not sure how. I've been debugging all this evening when I noticed my code that I had deployed onto the board quit working. I've only powered the board using USB; so I unplugged the USB cable from the computer and replugged in; no go. Afterwards Windows Vista (64 bit) is reporting that it doesn't recognize the device - also; when I hit the little reset button on the board I don't see the LED light reset either. Any tips from anyone, or am I SOL? I've been using this Netduino board for about a month now; and I haven't installed anything new on my PC, so I don't believe it's a driver thing with Windows. It's only while I was working in Visual Studio this evening when I suddenly noticed my code appeared to quit running on the board. To make sure it's a problem with the board; I went ahead and swapped with another USB cable and then tried running my code with the USB debugging on my laptop (I have the .NET MF Framework and the Netduino SDK installed on my laptop as well [it doubles as a second dev machine]). Any tips? -R.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Randster, Let's troubleshoot here... 1. When you power up the Netduino, does the blue LED turn on? Does it turn off after ~2.5 seconds? 2. Remove any shields or components which are attached to your Netduino...does this change anything? 3. When it stopped working, what were you doing/building? As long as the hardware hasn't been damaged, we built multiple safeguards and restoration options into the Netduino... The boards are built pretty tough. Let's see what we can do to help get you back up and running here. Chris

[Randster]

Chris, Thanks for the reply - 1. Blue LED is on - but it stays on and never turned off. Hitting the reset button the board does nothing. 2. Removed everything off of the board - the only thing attached to the board is the USB cable I've used for deploying my code. 3. [This is where I'm afraid I might have done something stupid/newbish] -- my project that I've been working on this evening was similar to Chris Seto's blog posting (see here for the details - http://www.chrisseto...rdpress/?p=186.) I was using D9 on the board for PWM hooked into a Traxxas XL5 ESC and then testing the code that Chris Seto had for a driver here: http://forums.netdui...ino-esc-driver/ - all was well for a few minutes (like ~2 minutes or so) when my code quit working (His driver program you'll notice on the post will spin up to 100 on the throttle integer and then quit - I had thrown that in an infinite loop in my app for some testing. (Newbish I know, but I wanted to watch the motor on the RC car spin up and down for a bit and see how it performed.) I had this working just fine yesterday evening, so I don't know why it would've quit this Sunday evening. I don't believe I did anything else that was different. Any other tips? EDIT: And no, in case anyone was wondering - there was no puff of smoke [or smell of smoke] or anything to give indication that the board blew up in some manner. I've left the board off for a few minutes now and rebooted my desktop and laptop to make sure nothing's freaked out by Windows, but no change in status, so I'm seriously thinking it's the board now; but I don't see how/what it was that I've done to it to freak it out. I can post a pic of the board right now if anyone wishes to see.

Edited by Randster, 10 January 2011 - 02:12 AM.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Randster, Were you powering the ESC directly from the Netduino? Or just using D9 as a signal--and using an external power supply to drive the actual ESC? If the blue LED is not going off, .NET MF is not booting. Next steps: 1. Unplug the Netduino from your PC (and all components from your Netduino) 2. Start the MFDeploy program on your PC (Start > Programs > .NET Micro Framework 4.1 SDK > Tools > MFDeploy.exe) and select "USB" transport 3. Hold down the pushbutton on your Netduino and plug it into your PC. 4. Is the Netduino now detected by your PC (and MFDeploy)? If the answer to #4 is yes, then you can try to ERASE your current app and/or redeploy the Netduino's .NET MF firmware. Chris

[Randster]

Chris - Thanks again for your patience. The ESC was powered off of a standard 9.6v NiMH battery that came with the RC for this project. D9 on the board was used for signaling only (white wire in the next screenshot). The only other wire that interfaced between the ESC and the Netduino was black, which I had going to ground on the board. (I was using this JPG http://www.chrisseto...08/IMG_0075.jpg as a reference.) This setup worked for Saturday evening, it was only Sunday evening about an hour ago when this quit. Holding down the pushbutton and trying to get MFDeploy to recognize it doesn't appear to be working unfortunately after several tries in the past 10 minutes or so, so I guess I've bricked this board? Is there any other self-test or way to debug the board? *sighs*

[Chris Walker]

Hi Randster, There is one more possible thing we can do here. If this doesn't work, then it's most likely that component(s) on your Netduino were damaged. If you're surface-mount-soldering skilled, using a multimeter may help you narrow down and replace the burnt-out part. Otherwise, your Netduino might need a new brother. Let's try this first: 1. Power up your Netudino. 2. Plug a jumper wire into the 3.3V header 3. Touch the other end of that jumper wire to the ERASE pad in the top-right corner of your Netduino (the gold pad right underneath the digital 0 pin). Hold it there, and maybe run it back and forth across the pad for about 1 second. 4. Power down your Netduino...and then plug it back in (into your PC). 5. Does it get detected? As an "Atmel" device? Or perhaps a COM port? If so, you can use SAM-BA to reflash the bootloader and hopefully the .NET MF firmware. Chris

[Randster]

Hi Randster,

There is one more possible thing we can do here. If this doesn't work, then it's most likely that component(s) on your Netduino were damaged. If you're surface-mount-soldering skilled, using a multimeter may help you narrow down and replace the burnt-out part. Otherwise, your Netduino might need a new brother.

Let's try this first:
1. Power up your Netudino.
2. Plug a jumper wire into the 3.3V header
3. Touch the other end of that jumper wire to the ERASE pad in the top-right corner of your Netduino (the gold pad right underneath the digital 0 pin). Hold it there, and maybe run it back and forth across the pad for about 1 second.
4. Power down your Netduino...and then plug it back in (into your PC).
5. Does it get detected? As an "Atmel" device? Or perhaps a COM port? If so, you can use SAM-BA to reflash the bootloader and hopefully the .NET MF firmware.

Chris

Just to make sure I'm reading you correctly, I've attached a camera pic of my board with highlights of the area's I should be running the cable to in red circles. If those locations are the ones you're referring to, then no joy.

If the answer truly is no joy; is there a possibility (in the future) of somehow getting a log off of the board? I realize that may seem ridiculous for a platform so small; but I'd like to know proof positive or get some clue.

Any other tips - or clues of what I might've done wrong if no joy is the case?

Attached Files

•  IMG_20110109_205438.jpg   222.46KB   77 downloads

[Chris Walker]

Hi Randster, What kind of log would you like to get off the board? If you're looking to retrieve something you saved on the microcontroller, you could transplant the microcontroller to another board if the microcontroller itself is not damaged. If you're looking for a log of what happened, the micro doesn't log actions unfortunately as it's just a controller chip. We might need to have a moment of silence for a fallen comrade here Chris P.S. If you've had your Netduino for fewer than 30 days, we can take a look at it here and see if it could be replaced under its 30-day warranty. We generally see very few defective boards in the field.

Edited by Chris Walker, 10 January 2011 - 04:32 AM.

[Randster]

Chris - It would be nice if it were possible to see what the board was blowing up on. I guess what I'm really after here is what did I do wrong. If it was something newbish and stupid on my part, I'd love to know why so the next time I get another Netduino board I don't make the same mistake. This was my first "real" project beside making a bunch of LEDs blink on a breadboard. I suppose this is some sort of catastrophic failure on the board if the erase thing isn't working as you mentioned. *starts playing TAPS* Is there any way or pointers you might have to avoid killing a board? I can't for the life of me see why the board suddenly quit running, and I'm almost 90% certain it wasn't anything I was doing hardware wiring up wise that could've killed it. At any rate, thanks for all the tips. I'll have to save up for another Netduino next paycheck and see about resurrecting this project again. EDIT: Unfortunately no, I've had this particular board for about 3 months or so now; been doing this as a hobby after hours and only did a few LED projects when I had the time. This was going to be my first attempt at some "real" electronic stuff; but I guess it's back to the drawing board.

[Chris Walker]

Generally speaking, driving high voltages onto Netduino pins (or drawing high amounts of current outside spec) can damage the board. Also, large static shocks could do it. One final thing: after you erase the Netduino, does it show up at all in Device Manager? Any name or other ID info? If you install SAM-BA (and therefore its drivers), does Device Manager give you any more info? Chris

[marty]

mine has a similar problem, i'd left it turned on on my desk overnight running a hello world to two arduinos (via serial). this morning i came in and started unplugging the breadboard, going to try i2c and i noticed the netduino was really hot.. the chip was hot. it has a ps plugged into it, then it's vn and ground go to the breadboard and power the two arduinos.. when i noticed it was really hot i started trying to communicate with it and it wasnt there. i tried all of the stuff listed above and when i do the 3.3v to the little reset pad the power and led leds dim down and stay dim afterwords, but still cant see it in device manager or anything .. i have two plus's on the way, but i think this one makes paper stay on the desk.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Marty,

i tried all of the stuff listed above and when i do the 3.3v to the little reset pad the power and led leds dim down and stay dim afterwords, but still cant see it in device manager or anything .. i have two plus's on the way, but i think this one makes paper stay on the desk.

What a very sad first post.

Is anything plugged into your Netduino? Is it a Netduino or Netduino Plus?

Also, if you plug in your Netduino into your PC via USB--do the LEDs come on? Do they stay bright?

If nothing is plugged into the Netduino, it's getting good power, and the LEDs dim after boot--then I'm pretty sure your Netduino has been damaged somehow. How long have you had it?

BTW, welcome to the Netduino community Marty.

Chris

[Ito]

Hi Marty,


What a very sad first post.

Is anything plugged into your Netduino? Is it a Netduino or Netduino Plus?

Also, if you plug in your Netduino into your PC via USB--do the LEDs come on? Do they stay bright?

If nothing is plugged into the Netduino, it's getting good power, and the LEDs dim after boot--then I'm pretty sure your Netduino has been damaged somehow. How long have you had it?

BTW, welcome to the Netduino community Marty.

Chris

( I have a similar problem. I got my netduino plus two days ago. (I had time to blink the onboard led last night) and now it doesn't work anymore. I tried everything I read on this post but nothing. As soon as I plug the usb on the bord I have three leds on (power - white, led - blue and ACT green) and they remain like that no matter what. I connected the 3.3V pin with the reset pad but nothing. My computer says Unknown USB device. I just got it and I didn't even have time to really play with it was in plan for the weekend). Please maybe you can give me some ideas what I can do!

[Ito]

I have a "livng" netduino again!!! Don't ask me why but flashing it fixed the problem. I fololowed the instructions from here: http://wiki.netduino...ep-by-step.ashx (whith two changes: I had to manualy force the "GPS Camera Detect" driver to my "Unknown device" and after I used SAM-BA 2.11 I had to delete the "GPS Camera Detect" device from Device manager otherwise MFDeploy.exe refused to "see" my netduino. Now why I had to flush it I don't know and I don't care. It works! I got my toy back!!!