1
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all Show Posts made by this member. Note that you can only see Show Posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - maciel310
2
Web platform / Re: Web platform not working, whine coming from board
So does the web platform ship with just the bootloader flashed, or does it include the rest of the firmware? If so, shouldn't the COM echo and web tests have worked, or would that be affected by the AC ripple as well?
Oh, and the whine was immediately noticeable when I plugged in the web platform from a couple feet away, so it isn't exactly faint. It isn't unbearable or anything, but figured it might be related.
Thanks for your tip.
3
Web platform / Web platform not working, whine coming from board
Anyway, I just got my web platform in from Seeed, but I'm having some issues with it. The first thing I noticed is that when I plugged in the board, an immediate and quite apparent whining like sound started to come from the board. Not knowing if this was normal or not I searched but couldn't find any reference to it anywhere, so I figured either I had something wrong, or it was just one of those things that was understood would happen (or should be, at least). I didn't concern myself too much of it, and proceeded to test out the device. First thing I did was plug it into my router, with the MCHPDetect program running, but nothing ever happened. No signal lights on either the board or the router, and no message ever came up in MCHPDetect. I tried resetting several times, but no luck. I tried a different network cable to be sure, but that one did the same exact thing. Thinking it might be the power supply (the one I had was 4.5V, slightly below the rating), I found another one (this time 8V, but the manual said that would just require more heat dissipation). Same thing.
Then I tried ditching the network aspect and simplifying it by just going with the local echo over the COM port as mentioned in the manual, but that didn't work either. When I plugged the usb cable into the web platform the red USB led briefly came on, Windows found the COM device and installed drivers successfully, but when I opened up the terminal application (hercules, as suggested somewhere on this site), the COM port would open but nothing would ever echo back successfully.
Now, thinking it might be a glitch in the firmware that came preinstalled on the device, I downloaded the firmware from Google Code to give that a shot. First thing I did when I loaded up the bootloader GUI was verify that the bootloader was intact on the device (one of the menu options), and that was a success. So after that passed, I followed the instructions in the manual and reset the device and immediately started the download for the firmware. The application went through, verified the firmware, and attempted to flash the firmware, but it failed with a time out issue. Multiple attempts all yielded the same exact result. I then downloaded the Intro to pic33 firmware in Google Code just to give that a shot, but the same error with that too. I double (and triple) checked all the settings in the bootloader application, but no change.
Just to note, I have tried pretty much everything above with a combination of having and not having a microsd card, but no difference. Also, interesting note, the pitch of the whining changes while the reset button on the board is pressed down. It isn't an acoustic thing (the pressure itself modifying the pitch), because if I let up enough for the switch to still be pressed down but not make contact (thus causing the board to boot back up), the pitch returns to its previous state. I attempted to locate the specific component that was causing the whine, but I couldn't seem to locate it.
I think that is about the extent of my troubleshooting. Oh, and this may or may not be related, but at the same time I ordered the web platform I also ordered a USB IR Toy, and that is also giving me some issues. No whine or anything like that, and I am able to flash firmware, etc, but I am having issues getting it to work properly. I have done a little bit of troubleshooting on it, but I'll make a separate post about it specifically at some other point. All that to say, might both have been caused by some damage during shipping? It seemed well enough protected (smallish box, but both were completely wrapped in bubble wrap), but maybe the international trip (Hong Kong to California, USA) was too rough on them.
So, any ideas? Thanks.