oink

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Confused...(newbie)
« on: March 01, 2016, 03:45:27 pm »
Hi all.. new to CC3D. I have the atom unit, been trying to set it up. When I first tried, plugged the Atom into the usb and ran through set up wizard, everything went well, firmware flashed to board, ran through vehicle set up. ( fixed wing, elevons), did all the motor neutral and aileron set ups etc etc. When I got to the calibrate TX section, the very first time it worked on the throttle setting, then the whole calibration set up stopped recognising my TX. I tried for a while, then ran out of time and gave up.. Came back to it today to carry on, but my Atom is refusing to upgrade/erase firmware, and won't move past this part of the programme. It just times out and tells me to upgrade manually . When I use the cancel or disconnect button, libre pilot ( or open pilot, I have both installed) crashes!  The Atom is displaying a solid green led and a slow flashing blue,  Any ideas?? Have I screwed something up big time or is it just 'newbie' finger trouble??  Any help would be much appreciated..       Thanks..
To Infinity and beyond!

Mateusz

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2016, 04:33:49 pm »
Hi oink,

I assume you upgraded from OpenPilot to LibrePilot and flashed LP firmware.

1) Does GCS connect to the board ? Can you see Scopes -> Gyro / Accel sampling running ?
2) What it shows in Firmware tab (screenshot) ?
3) Do you have any other application running at the same time, that could potentially conflict or claim USB-Serial device ? You should not run two GCS apps at once.
4) About LED behaviour slow blinking indicates normal functioning http://opwiki.readthedocs.org/en/latest/appendices/bootloader.html#led-behavior
5) As a dirty walk-around for crashing, you might want to install Ubuntu on VirtualBox and try Linux version of GCS ? I know it sounds complicated, but I thought maybe it's some sort of problem with Windows drivers and that's why GCS is crashing, so using Linux GCS could potentially solve the problem. But of course it would be good if someone with debugging skills could reproduce it.


oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2016, 06:59:39 pm »
Hi Mateusz.....

Thanks for replying.. Right... I started out with open pilot, but today when i tried to work on it, it wouldn't flash the firmware, just kept timing out. I tried several times, some other advice said ( on manual instal rather than wizard) to click on erase and refresh first then connect device, that didn't work either. Before the board worked fine, flashed easily and when you went to the flight control page and tilted/rocked it the horizons moved correctly. It was just the TX calibrate that wouldn't work..  Today, the firmware won't flash, the horizons aren't moving and the status box is showing.. 'NO INPUT',  I have been into scopes, i get the 4 screens up, one is scrolling, the other 3 are static, but there is no output indicated on any of  them.
The only other thing that was running at the time was my email client, so pretty sure no conflicts or usb issues there.
After my failure with openpilot i installed Librepilot, but EXACTLY the same things happen. The firmware won't flash there either, the board lights up, shows briefly on the rx bar at the bottom of the screen, with one green square on the TX bar  as well, the ''Disconnect' tab is lit, then the lights on the bar go out. If i click on disconnect or on cancel, the whole programme freezes.
I really don't wish to get into linux, windows confuses me enough without trying to get my head around another operating system as well..   Hopefully this is a bit more help??...............    :'(
To Infinity and beyond!

Mateusz

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2016, 07:30:06 pm »
Hi oink,

No problem. So you were not able to flash LibrePilot yet, because it stopped working with OpenPilot right ? I suspect you might have corrupted flash memory somehow and bricked CC3D.
I would  suggest to read this thread https://forum.librepilot.org/index.php?topic=208.0 read it carefuly and ask if you don't understand before doing something :) But flashing recovery image may help if it's flash problem. Recovery image should also clean up external flash memory where settings are stored.

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2016, 07:42:59 pm »
Further info..  After reading the openwiki page you provided, i  have checked my firmware, and gone through the procedure for reinstalling the bootloader. After I had done that, i attempted to reflash the firmware. it almost looked as if it was going to work, the blue bar went across the screen, but when it reached 100% it still said .. timed out.
I am getting an error message that says.... Could not enter DFU mode.
Unit is still displaying one solid green and one slow flashing blue light, which 'should' indicate the board is satisfactorily running..
To Infinity and beyond!

Mateusz

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2016, 07:52:01 pm »
Further info..  After reading the openwiki page you provided, i  have checked my firmware, and gone through the procedure for reinstalling the bootloader. After I had done that, i attempted to reflash the firmware. it almost looked as if it was going to work, the blue bar went across the screen, but when it reached 100% it still said .. timed out.
I am getting an error message that says.... Could not enter DFU mode.
Unit is still displaying one solid green and one slow flashing blue light, which 'should' indicate the board is satisfactorily running..

Atom is like CC3D. Did you locate SBL pads on the board and shortened them ? Only shortenning SBL pads will allow entering dfu bootloader on STMF3 chips. Only Revo and Sparky2 has STMF4 chip and does not require shortenning those pads. Once you shorten pads you should flash ef image with bin extension using dfu-util.exe tool. That imagine contains both bootloader and firmware. So it's not necessary to flash firmware afterwards. After flashing is successful with dfu-util tool, desolder SBL pads leaving them not connected. Then connect board and it should boot normally.

Whatever you do with hardware like soldering, board must be powered off for safety.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2016, 07:57:12 pm by Mateusz »

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2016, 07:55:59 pm »
MMM.. I've just read through that second article.... soldering pins together, for me at least, seems a recipe for total and utter disaster. I'm no great computer wizard, as you can probably tell, so what I'm hoping for is a fairly simple fix..... I certainly appreciate your help and guidance though, and will try MOST things.. When you talk about '''Recovery ''' is that the same as ' rescue ', or something completely different??
 The way this is going it looks like I may well have damaged the board.. If so i will probably succumb to the mighty hammer technique and purchase another board, and this time try to set it up more carefully, not that I thought I had been careless the first time...  :-\
To Infinity and beyond!

f5soh

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2016, 07:57:38 pm »
Unit is still displaying one solid green and one slow flashing blue light, which 'should' indicate the board is satisfactorily running..

Slow fading blue led ? This means no firmware.

- Disconnect board
- Hit Upgrade&Erase button
- Connect board
- Wait 30s after flash end until board connect again.

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2016, 08:09:25 pm »
Hi F5soh.. The blue was not fading, just slow blinking.  But I did as you suggested, and it ran through the firmware instal, got to the 100% mark, sat there for a while, then displayed... " Timed out , unable to reboot. "  The unit is currently sat there in the slow blinking mode .
To Infinity and beyond!

f5soh

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2016, 08:15:09 pm »
Did you update the bootloader ?
Double check if the BL version is v4:
- Rescue
- Connect board

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2016, 08:21:52 pm »
Yes... BL Ver is 4. I went through the rescue procedure but that doesn't seem to have done the trick. But I will try again.  I am currently just doing this with JUST the atom connected to the usb,  no radio Receiver connected to the unit, that should make no difference I assume?  When I was trying to upgrade firmware earlier the rx was connected, There was an intermittent 'beep' from somewhere in the system, but i think that was coming from the esc as i don't believe the atom has any audio output for faults??
To Infinity and beyond!

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2016, 08:29:43 pm »
Right.... ran through rescue again...... it says firmware has been installed, but once again then fails to reboot and displays . timed out whilst rebooting..:(
To Infinity and beyond!

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2016, 08:35:43 pm »
[img]   [img]
To Infinity and beyond!

f5soh

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2016, 08:39:50 pm »
You should not have any beep from your board/vehicle without external power.
Board should be only powered by usb.

In your screenshot there is no firmware, only bootloader.

oink

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Re: Confused...(newbie)
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2016, 08:47:08 pm »
Ok.. well, it said it was installing firmware!..

The external power was only connected when the programe prompted me to do so, for the later set up procedures, ie. motor neutral point, servo set up etc..
To Infinity and beyond!