PixelBlaze sometimes "forgets" stored 2d map and reverts to default "ring"

ZacharyRD · June 2, 2023, 10:34pm

I’ve been running into a weird situation where when I’m switching between patterns, sometimes (and, super not helpfully, I can figure out why / when) the pattern starts looking wonky, and when I click over to the Pixel Mapper, it seems the map that should be there is just… gone, and it says “ring” with some default mapping code instead.

You can see my current settings on both the Mapper and Settings page as screenshots below. It’s happening frequently enough to be a clear problem, both on initially turning on the PB but also sometimes when switching patterns.

What could be causing this, and how to I avoid it?

If helpful, full mapping data is here:

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jeff · June 2, 2023, 11:32pm

Hey!

Is this on a V2 or a V3?

I feel like I’ve had this happen in a few situations:

On older firmware that had an issue where it wouldn’t save the map in some situations. Can you just confirm you’re running the latest, and that you always remember to scroll down on the map page and click the green “Save” button? I’ve lost some maps that way as well, since the preview area updates live, even before you save.
When my board is resetting because of a bug with certain functions. This was always pretty deep, like using too many globals, when atan2 used to have an issue, or running out of memory. That’s why I wrote a unit test suite that calls everything in the API to make sure these don’t regress – and I’m not aware of any right now. Sometimes the fail-safe mode would reset certain settings on the Settings page as well.

The sign this might be happening is that when running a pattern or switching into it, the status LED on the board indicate’s it’s rebooting (same blink pattern as when you first power it). Are you seeing this?
Similarly, sometimes I would cause Pixelblaze to reboot and lose a map if I had a pattern or map with corrupted code get saved to the board. This hasn’t happened for me in a while as well, but the tell-tale sign was that, again, the status LEDs would flash to indicate a reboot.

FWIW, your map worked fine on a device I loaded it with. I couldn’t get it to lose it. Would you be comfortable DM’ing me a .pbb backup archive of your device?

ZacharyRD · June 3, 2023, 6:11am

First answer: I think this is “I’m dumb / PBCAK”.

I didn’t realize you have to hit save on the map for it to hold, or knew that once but forgot and the Save button is easy to miss given a mapping as long as mine.

What I’m confused by – and would report as a bug – is the pattern sometimes stays through changing “tabs” back to the pattern screen without a save, and so I don’t think I realized that was the issue, especially since there’s no error message or warning when you leave that page.

I can gladly send you a full PBB map if this wasn’t just a “damn it I submitted a forum post about a bug and the issue is I didn’t realize I had to hit save”, but this is a v3.40 firmware, and I’m 99% sure it’s a v3 hardware, with a sensor expansion board.

On a sidenote, is there any way to confirm what version of hardware it is from the web interface? I’d expect to see that on the Settings page and don’t. (The board is a bit of a pain to access – it’s in a 3d printed case, heavily tapped shut and weatherized – and I’m not going to bother right now given this thread).

Thanks for giving the various answers, and hopefully they’re helpful to other people.

jeff · June 3, 2023, 2:16pm

Not at all - multiple people have reported it, I’ve experienced it myself - this is a usability problem. We’ll talk it over and see if something simple can make it better. I like you suggestion about switching tabs. We could also just match the UI from the pattern editor tab and put the Save button at the top, perhaps in scroll-sticky div that’s always visible.

Not that I know of! But based off when you purchased, we’d be able to figure out whether you have HW 3.4 or 3.6 (3.6 has additional GPIO pins exposed). If you purchased after January, 2022, there’s probably a v3.6 hardware in there.

ZacharyRD · June 3, 2023, 2:31pm

Thanks. Another simple usability feature request — expose the hardware configuration on the settings page!

Especially as you keep improving the platform — and therefore shipping more versions — it would be super helpful, since they’re easy to install in ways that are not simple to access, and that goes double for the Pico once there’s other variants of that.

My only Pico would require entirely destroying the piece it’s in use with to access it — it’s glued in place between a strip of leather, the LEDs, and some faux-fur, in a way designed to be both hidden and weatherized……

wizard · June 3, 2023, 4:10pm

The only hardware difference would be either more IO pads, which you’d need physical access to use, or the XL storage which would show up as more free space on the patterns tab.

There wouldn’t be any kind of reliability or pattern feature difference on the hardware side.

Yes, I think some UI improvements are called for on that tab especially!

system · October 1, 2023, 4:11pm

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