26 replies to this topic

[Angus Hutton-McKenzie]

Hi Guys.

 

I have 2 N+2's which are both seemingly bricked.

The first one happened when i deployed a program to it (seemingly successfully), but the debugger in VS 2010 just seemed to drop out.

Redeployment just faced a 10 minute hang on 'preparing to deploy assemblies', before failure.

I tried with the second board and it did the same thing. So the problem is either caused by the program or by VS 2010, but i don't know which. 

 

I attempted to erase the program from the board with no luck, so i found this thread here, and followed the firmware erase and flash procedure using STDFU Tester and DfuSe Demo.

The erase was successful, but the upgrade button in DfuSe Demo is Greyed Out and cannot be selected.

 

As a result i have one N+2 with no firmware and one that just doesnt work. 

The one that doesn't work is still pingable (not in bootloader mode), so the USB functions etc.

 

Any suggestions?

[Chris Walker]

Hi Angus, When you run DFUSE, does the device appear in the "available DFU devices" pull-down? When you click "choose..." which firmware file do you select? If your device appears and you select a file, Upgrade should become enabled automatically. If all else fails, please close the app and reopen it and see if that fixes things. Also...if you've erased the board fully using STDFU Tester, then it will _not_ be ping-able from MFDeploy. If it is, it wasn't erased. Welcome to the Netduino community, Chris

[Angus Hutton-McKenzie]

Hi Chris

 

I would have responded sooner but i didnt get any notifications of a reply

Anyway thanks for your response.

 

I checked what you said, and the board i erased with STDFU is not pingable, the one i did not erase is pingable.

Also neither are available in the DfuSe drop down box of available devices...

I assume i cannot upgrade because it cannot properly communicate?

But if it can't communicate, how could it find the device to erase it?

 

Thanks for the welcome, i hope i dont cause you too much hassle

 

Angus

[deloz]

Hi,

 

I got a similar situation. One N+2 which does nothing. Except lighting with both LED if powered up.

But no 'bling' on connect, no appearance in mfdeploy, no appearance in the tester.

 

Not quite sure what caused that desaster, was playing around with a webserver and some pwm settings...

 

I really appreciate any help, cause I need this damn thing on monday :/

 

Regards, Fabian

[Angus Hutton-McKenzie]

Still no idea anyone?

 

Should i attempt an RMA? They bricked within a couple of weeks of having them...

I cant imagine a pretty standard socket based program would have cause such devastation without a flaw in the device firmware.

 

Do i stand a chance you think? 

[Chris Walker]

Hi Angus,

I checked what you said, and the board i erased with STDFU is not pingable, the one i did not erase is pingable. Also neither are available in the DfuSe drop down box of available devices...

When you erase the board with STDFU Tester, that clears out the entire flash--both NETMF and your application. To put NETMF back on the board, press and hold the pushbutton while plugging the Netduino Plus 2 into your PC. It should then appear in the pulldown of DFUSE, and you can flash the firmware from there. Does that get you up and running? Chris P.S. regarding firmware...there are a few known bugs in the lwIP network stack used in .NET MF 4.2. There's a newer version of the lwIP networking stack built into the upcoming .NET MF 4.3 release, which should help with those cases where lwIP was causing troubles before.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Fabian, If you press and hold the pushbutton on your Netduino Plus 2 while plugging it into your PC, does it appear in the ST reflash tools (STDFU or DFUSE)? Was the code you were deploying one of the .NET MF SDK samples? If we can identify what code caused the issue, we can provide guidance, file bug reports (for NETMF) or provide bugfixes (in the Netduino firmware), etc. Welcome to the Netduino community, Chris

[stotech]

I'm sorry to say but it might really be bricked.

 

I've had 2 N+2's stop communicating over USB in the last month for no apparent reason. The first time it was connected to an external power source and USB at the same time while i was debugging and just stopped.

 

I thought it might have been the external supply and changed to a better one. 3 weeks later when it was only connected to the computer and LAN it stopped responding. Reset and no bing bong. Doesn't matter weather I hold the button down or not. It doesn't appear in defuse.

 

Figured it might have something to do with the usb ports on my laptop. I've been checking the voltage regularly to no avail.

 

I'll follow this thread in case there are any new ideas.

 

Good luck.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Grant, Do you have your multimeter handy by any chance? We'd be really interested in knowing what voltage you're seeing on the 3.3V and 5V rails on those two boards. If those are outputting the right voltages, that means that your power circuitry is in good shape--so that just leaves the USB circuitry and the microcontroller. If the microcontroller is hot then it has been fried by something plugged into the board (rare around here, but it happens). If not--and if the power circuitry is okay--we'd like to swap you for a working refurbished unit so we can analyze the hardware and figure out what's going on. We are always testing things to find ways to provide an even better user experience. If you don't have time to test the board, or don't have your multimeter nearby--no worries. Chris

[jscott13]

I just opened my new netduino plus 2 and after an hour or so of messing around with it its completely unresponsive. I've read through alteast a dozen other threads with proposed solutions and can't find anything that works. Here's the situation:

 

I wrote a simple flashing light program and it looks like I successfully loaded the program to the controller through visual studio express 2010.  I went to make a coding change so I'm not actually sure if the original program ran on the controller and when I went to reload the program I could not get a response from the controller.  I'm using the micro framework 4.2 and the latest netduino sdk.  

 

I opened up MFDeploy.exe and changed the communication type to USB and NetduinoPlus2_Netduino appears in the device field.  If I try to ping it or do anything else I get Error: No response from device.

 

From what I've read I need to use STDFU tester to flash the firmware so I downloaded it.  I unplugged the netduino, held down the button on it while I plugged it into the USB.  When I do this I get the windows sound indicating it didn't properly connect the the device and no new USB device appears in the device manager(Is this normal?). Also, If I plug the device in without holding the button down the normal windows sound occurs and the device appears in the device manager as Netduino.  No matter how I connect it the white and blue LED are always on.

 

In STDFU no device appears in the devices dropdown list no matter what the circumstances.

[Chris Walker]

Hi jscott13, When you press and hold the pushbutton on your Netduino Plus 2 while plugging it into your PC...it goes into DFU (firmware upgrade) mode. It should show up in Device Manager under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" as "STM Device in DFU Mode." This is a hardware bootloader mode permanently written into the ROM of the ST chip, so it should always work. If you are not seeing any enumeration in Device Manager at all when you plug in the device, then please reboot your computer and try again. Which version of STDFU and DFUSE are you running? Chris

[stotech]

I've no doubt that I've overlooked something at my end. Although I can't think what. My USB voltage is a little low maybe? But the one of the times it was connected to a very good external 8v source to Vin as well??

 

Link

 

Both are the same. Working perfect in their last state. MCU's top out about 95F. I don't know if that's warm or not but those last programs probably have a few threads running.

 

I was going to program them in their final configuration over serial and put them to work, but if it helps you with the product their yours. Just shoot me over an address and RA number.

 

Grant.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Grant, Oh sorry, I didn't realize that your boards were booting. When you press and hold the pushbutton while plugging in the board, does that put your unit into bootloader mode (where your app doesn't start)? If you plug in the power barrel in addition to USB power, does the bootloader then also enumerate as a DFU device on your PC? The voltage on USB (VBUS) shouldn't matter if you have a DC power adapter connected. If you can do that--and then measure power on the VIN, 5V and 3V3 headers I would be really grateful. Only if you have time... Thanks Grant, Chris

[stotech]

Yep, they go into boot loader mode just fine. But still don't communicate over USB. 

 

While in boot loader mode and only connected over USB there is no power at the 3v3 or 5v pins.

 

Same happens when connected to decent switched mode 8v at Vin.

 

I've got a 100M Scope if you want me to grab a chunk of data for you?

 

Grant

[Angus Hutton-McKenzie]

Hi Angus, When you erase the board with STDFU Tester, that clears out the entire flash--both NETMF and your application. To put NETMF back on the board, press and hold the pushbutton while plugging the Netduino Plus 2 into your PC. It should then appear in the pulldown of DFUSE, and you can flash the firmware from there. Does that get you up and running? Chris P.S. regarding firmware...there are a few known bugs in the lwIP network stack used in .NET MF 4.2. There's a newer version of the lwIP networking stack built into the upcoming .NET MF 4.3 release, which should help with those cases where lwIP was causing troubles before.

 

My understanding was that once the Firmware has been erased, the device starts in Bootloader Mode regardless of button held down...

Either way the button held down on startup makes no difference. While in Bootloader Mode the DefuSe Demo does not recognise a device.

 

It will be interesting to see if the MF4.3 prevents a recurrence of this issue. I would hate to get another board, and have the same thing happen...

MF 4.3 seems to be released already, so when i get this fixed i can have a go. Will there be a new Firmware for the N+2 for the 4.3 compatibility or is that already done in the devices on current role out?

[stotech]

Dear Chris

 

You are one hard man to get a hold of.

 

Grant.

[Peter Forstmeier]

Hi,

it seems that i have nearly the same Problem,.

Can't connect with USB as well

 

http://forums.netdui...erase-netduino/

 

Peter

[stotech]

Does anyone know an email address for secret labs or Chris. I've tried PM for a while and thought I'd get a response about this at least on the forums but to no avail. Maybe he is away or something. There must be another way to get into contact with them regarding commercial issue's. Otherwise it's a bit worrying to say the least.

 

Grant.

[Peter Forstmeier]

Hi,

i get my N+2 back to work.

 

-Uninstall the netduinosdk_NETMF43

-install it back.

 

-Do the whole stuff with STDFU Tester-DfuSe Demo and MFDeploy again.

 

i hope this is working for the others as well.

Peter

[Chris Walker]

Hi Angus,

My understanding was that once the Firmware has been erased, the device starts in Bootloader Mode regardless of button held down... Either way the button held down on startup makes no difference. While in Bootloader Mode the DefuSe Demo does not recognise a device.

To get into DFUSE bootloader mode, the pushbutton does need to be pressed down for sure. If the firmware is erased and you power it up without pressing the button, the microcontroller will just try to execute the empty firmware. Can you open up Device Manager really quickly? When you plug in your device with the button pressed down, does it appear as an "ST DFU Device"? If you plug it in without pressing the button, does it enumerate at all? In the latter case, it shouldn't. Chris