Apparently I was one of the very first to have a Beaglev-fire. A few days after a long hiatus I hooked it up to revive a project that was started but never finished to discover that it failed to boot and was completely unresponsive to commands from the command line like. lsusb for instance. Then I tried hooking up to the serial debug port at 115200 and nada. Since I see various blue light activity starting with one, then the second at the other end of the led string finally ending after a few seconds with three leds after a power on with the user button pressed. I’m left with the impression that it is functional with apparently no way to bring it back to life. To make matters even worse, the cost to replace it is well beyond reason at $186 via Digikey and $201 via Mouser. Yikes! Last night I received a kind note saying that there was a fundamental to the board very soon after my original purchase that makes my present board incompatible with today’s offering. Seems like a fair trade of my old system with the present offering might be in order. Second best would be a detailed procedure for bringing the system back to life.
Click the buttons and reflash. Use a USB to TTL to read boot logs.
The beaglev-fire is very complicated. So, you need to get into boot mode. Let me get mine…
with USB-C and Ethernet, hold down the USR button and the Reset button, then plug in the USB-C cable to power the board, and finally flicker the reset button to get into boot mode so you can program it.
Once in boot mode, try to get an image from bb-imager-rs and HSS will pop up. BLAMO! in biz…
I will try again to get the exact etiquette down pat and return service.
Do you see anything over the serial debug interface?
Regards,
I see absolutely nothing other than a change in the led activity with a few lights blinking at the initial power up. I did note a slight difference in behavior depending on the presence of the flash that was used when I used the board a few years back. As I mentioned earlier there is no change to the lsusb log with or without the board. There is no activity on the debug port. Just to make sure I did my due diligence confirming the wiring and correct operation of the serial port. Nope dead. As I recall, the correct procedure when the board was released a few years back was to copy a file to flash card and then boot the system from that. Going down another level would be JTAG the board but I’m reluctant as the time involved is of diminishing return. Going all the way back to the methods one would use at the factory the first time the board is powered may be the only recourse and is certainly a possibility but frankly not a happy option.
If the boot-loader still works, you can hold “USER” button and toggle “Reset” and a usb flash drive should show up..
Also, use the fan. That Microchip MPFS025T really gets hot. Cool it too. I have had what you are describing in the past. I thought I could not update the board. Like @RobertCNelson is typing to you, toggle reset while holding the USR button. The bootloader will show its face.
Then, you ought to be able to program an image to it and see it via the serial debug interface. TX, RX, and GND only… Well, that along with USB C power connectivity.
No… something is seriously wrong if it’s hot…
Oh. I was unaware. I thought it got hot because it was processing too much too quickly.
Seth
P.S. I still use a fan and now I know something is wrong with mine too. I will try to reflash it.
“Hot” is a subjective data-point, but I also recall mine running somewhat
cooler nowadays, compared to the OOB Experience.
I also use a small NF-A4x10 from Noctua to keep it decent.
With the fan, it hovers around 37°C and w/o it can easily climb to 60°C+.
I know the part itself is rated for much more,
but with a 10-layer board, all that energy is transferred all over the place really well,
and eventually it gets places we don’t want it to.
Sounds really odd that the board should boot but not show anything on the debug port…
Have you verified that what you’re saying is indeed correct by way
of Oscilloscope on the RX/TX lines? You should check both sides of that LVC241.
Just as a quick comment: It has never been possible to boot BeagleV-Fire from SD Card.