I was an early backer of the project and when my board arrived a couple of weeks ago, I didn't have time to work with it. And then I couldn't find a microSD card and had to order something and I just finally got around to trying to power the board on yesterday, but it doesn't do anything. I've tried both Android and Linux images, but the board does pretty close to nothing at all. The orange power light comes on, and that's it. Reading forum posts suggested that it takes awhile to boot the first time, but it still hadn't done anything when I checked on it this morning after being plugged in overnight. I used a power adapter that charges tablets and quick charges my nexus 6 with no issues and that is rated as 2.4A at 5v, so I don't think that's the problem.
2GB board
PNY 64GB class 10 U3 microSD card
Monoprice 2.4A power adapter ( http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13915 )
Monoprice premium HDMI cable
Acer 1080p LCD screen and LG 720p TV both tried
Please advise me as to the next steps, either in troubleshooting or in returning this for replacement. I sent this as an email a bit over a week ago but decided to try a forum post after today's Kickstarter update. Thanks!
The best thing you could do at this point is acquire a USB to TTL cable. You would then hook this to the appropriate pins on the board while booting and monitor the process from another computer. This would give you an idea what the issue is.
The most common issues are power, bad SD image, and incompatible displays. That said there have clearly been some dead units.
A quick and dirty function test is to install a linux image on the SD use a minimal one like http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376 boot the board and then after 20 minutes hook up ethernet cable. If you get blinking lights, the board isnt likley dead, probably one of the aforementioned display issues. I note you stats the Acer is a 1080p screen does it exactly support 1080p@60hz?
(05-03-2016, 12:10 PM)rahlquist Wrote: The best thing you could do at this point is acquire a USB to TTL cable. You would then hook this to the appropriate pins on the board while booting and monitor the process from another computer. This would give you an idea what the issue is.
The most common issues are power, bad SD image, and incompatible displays. That said there have clearly been some dead units.
A quick and dirty function test is to install a linux image on the SD use a minimal one like http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376 boot the board and then after 20 minutes hook up ethernet cable. If you get blinking lights, the board isnt likley dead, probably one of the aforementioned display issues. I note you stats the Acer is a 1080p screen does it exactly support 1080p@60hz?
It does support 1080p60, yes. Is the board incapable of other display output? That's a serious design flaw that the competing boards don't have.
I've tried several SD cards, imaging from windows and from linux and mac, and I've tried remix, android, and linux. On the board I get a reddish light when I connect power, but nothing else. I went through a number of steps from the forum and from other sites before calling it dead. I'm hoping for a response from Pine rather than from the community, which is why I tried email first. I understand that things are busy and that I'll have to wait for that.
I didn't have anything to connect the ethernet to handy so that didn't occur to me in my testing, I'll try that tonight, and I'll try any other novel solutions, but I've been working in IT for a very long time, so I've tried the usual suspects (power, swapping everything that could be swapped, etc)
(05-03-2016, 11:18 AM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I used a power adapter that charges tablets and quick charges my nexus 6 with no issues and that is rated as 2.4A at 5v, so I don't think that's the problem.
500mA might not be enough.
(05-03-2016, 12:30 PM)tkaiser Wrote: (05-03-2016, 11:18 AM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I used a power adapter that charges tablets and quick charges my nexus 6 with no issues and that is rated as 2.4A at 5v, so I don't think that's the problem.
500mA might not be enough.
yes, that's why I was using an adapter with 2400mA.
05-03-2016, 01:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-03-2016, 01:19 PM by rahlquist.)
(05-03-2016, 12:22 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: (05-03-2016, 12:10 PM)rahlquist Wrote: The best thing you could do at this point is acquire a USB to TTL cable. You would then hook this to the appropriate pins on the board while booting and monitor the process from another computer. This would give you an idea what the issue is.
The most common issues are power, bad SD image, and incompatible displays. That said there have clearly been some dead units.
A quick and dirty function test is to install a linux image on the SD use a minimal one like http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376 boot the board and then after 20 minutes hook up ethernet cable. If you get blinking lights, the board isnt likley dead, probably one of the aforementioned display issues. I note you stats the Acer is a 1080p screen does it exactly support 1080p@60hz?
It does support 1080p60, yes. Is the board incapable of other display output? That's a serious design flaw that the competing boards don't have.
I've tried several SD cards, imaging from windows and from linux and mac, and I've tried remix, android, and linux. On the board I get a reddish light when I connect power, but nothing else. Red LED is just power indicator, will turn on whenever power is applied even if its not enough to boot.
I have a tv here that says it does 1080p60 but for whatever reason it doesnt work with this. Currently that is the only supported output and by supported I mean it is only putting that out none of the traditional negotiation you get over hdmi. It will probably get addressed eventually, but meanwhile....
I have a new hdmi to vga adapter similar to the one Pine is hawking on there site now, bought this because I wanted it this century instead of next. http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=905 will post info there once I test.
(05-03-2016, 12:51 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: (05-03-2016, 12:30 PM)tkaiser Wrote: (05-03-2016, 11:18 AM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I used a power adapter that charges tablets and quick charges my nexus 6 with no issues and that is rated as 2.4A at 5v, so I don't think that's the problem.
500mA might not be enough.
yes, that's why I was using an adapter with 2400mA.
What tkaiser is pointing out with so few words is 99% of all smart phone chargers only put out 500ma unless the device negotiates for a higher amount. The Pine doesnt negotiate.
(05-03-2016, 01:17 PM)rahlquist Wrote: (05-03-2016, 12:22 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: (05-03-2016, 12:10 PM)rahlquist Wrote: The best thing you could do at this point is acquire a USB to TTL cable. You would then hook this to the appropriate pins on the board while booting and monitor the process from another computer. This would give you an idea what the issue is.
The most common issues are power, bad SD image, and incompatible displays. That said there have clearly been some dead units.
A quick and dirty function test is to install a linux image on the SD use a minimal one like http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376 boot the board and then after 20 minutes hook up ethernet cable. If you get blinking lights, the board isnt likley dead, probably one of the aforementioned display issues. I note you stats the Acer is a 1080p screen does it exactly support 1080p@60hz?
It does support 1080p60, yes. Is the board incapable of other display output? That's a serious design flaw that the competing boards don't have.
I've tried several SD cards, imaging from windows and from linux and mac, and I've tried remix, android, and linux. On the board I get a reddish light when I connect power, but nothing else. Red LED is just power indicator, will turn on whenever power is applied even if its not enough to boot.
I have a tv here that says it does 1080p60 but for whatever reason it doesnt work with this. Currently that is the only supported output and by supported I mean it is only putting that out none of the traditional negotiation you get over hdmi. It will probably get addressed eventually, but meanwhile....
I have a new hdmi to vga adapter similar to the one Pine is hawking on there site now, bought this because I wanted it this century instead of next. http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=905 will post info there once I test.
(05-03-2016, 12:51 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: (05-03-2016, 12:30 PM)tkaiser Wrote: (05-03-2016, 11:18 AM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I used a power adapter that charges tablets and quick charges my nexus 6 with no issues and that is rated as 2.4A at 5v, so I don't think that's the problem.
500mA might not be enough.
yes, that's why I was using an adapter with 2400mA.
What tkaiser is pointing out with so few words is 99% of all smart phone chargers only put out 500ma unless the device negotiates for a higher amount. The Pine doesnt negotiate.
I'm sorry, but it was a really stupid design decision to both not include a power adapter AND make sure that 99% of all power adapters aren't going to work. If the video works in just one mode, then that also doesn't meet the HDMI design spec. These are things that I haven't had to deal with using competitor's boards.
(05-03-2016, 01:29 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I'm sorry, but it was a really stupid design decision to both not include a power adapter AND make sure that 99% of all power adapters aren't going to work. If the video works in just one mode, then that also doesn't meet the HDMI design spec. These are things that I haven't had to deal with using competitor's boards.
I wont argue about the power, that was a faux pas of massive proportions. Here is the key, get a good supply. It sucks but it will help. Use a short good cable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbguMgNaMqo you can see in my video there that even a cable marked "Samsung" may be a pile of crap. The USB port specification 1.0 says a USB port cant supply more than 500ma. Phone chargers get around that by doing special negotiations ranging from a simple pull down resistor on the data line to a complex conversation that can then make the charger output 12v @ 3A or potentially more. The reason they all start with 500ma is early devices had no protection from over-current so plug in the wrong device to something that can provide a few amps and poof. The device should have had a standard power jack but its easier to sell with microusb.
The HDMI issue is flat out idiotic. We are probably weeks if not months form a solution on that based on what I have seen tllim say.
Am I shocked, no, annoyed, yes.
I have a number of great power adapters, all of which behave the way that the entire industry has decided power adapters should behave. The Pine should either bridge the data ports to say it's a high powered device or it should have a barrel connector instead of a usb one.
(05-03-2016, 02:08 PM)tomofdarkness Wrote: I have a number of great power adapters, all of which behave the way that the entire industry has decided power adapters should behave. The Pine should either bridge the data ports to say it's a high powered device or it should have a barrel connector instead of a usb one.
It is a rather unfortunate knowledge gap, people who have used SBC for a bit have usually run into the issue. Thats why I have all kinds of different voltage regulator boards I can hook up to anything with DC out of 36v-10v and regulate it down to 5.0-5.2v I need for things like PI and Pine. In all honesty I wonder if the tendency to cling to the micorusb is due to the EU rules standardizing the connector for phone charging. Regardless, yes its a crappy subject.
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