I have 2 PBs that I love playing with. The first one has issues the second one doesn’t. What I mean is that when I program the second PB, move to a different room and plug it into the a wall socket powered supply (5v) the attached matrix runs as expected. However when I attempt to plug the first PB using a USB cable along with a small 8x8 matrix or any strip for that matter, the PB blinks 3 times then the LED’s briefly glow yellow like it’s in setup mode, which it actually is. It doesn’t self run like my other PB. Can someone enlighten me as to why this might be happening?
Thanks in advance,
FredEBear
Hi @FredEBear ,
Right, flashing 3 times when it starts up means it’s in setup mode. The question is why?
- If it hasn’t been set up yet, it would stay in setup mode. I’m guessing you’ve already either connected it to your local WiFi, or are running it in AP mode, is that right? If you set it up again at that location, does it keep going back to setup mode?
- If it restarts several times, either from a power issue or a crash, it will eventually enter a fail-safe mode and go back to SETUP mode. If you power everything off for a few seconds, and back on, what does the LED do? Does it ever blink/flash once started?
- If the button is held for several seconds, or the BTN signal is otherwise shorted to GND (I think you mentioned that you soldered an external button in a previous post), it will go back to setup mode. Can you check the BTN signal to see if it is getting shorted?
- If it can’t save information about the mode in flash memory for some reason, it could default to SETUP mode. Do you have problems with other files, like saving patterns? Is it intermittent?
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If it hasn’t been set up yet, it would stay in setup mode. I’m guessing you’ve already either connected it to your local WiFi, or are running it in AP mode, is that right? If you set it up again at that location, does it keep going back to setup mode?
Answer - Pixelblaze_1CE14A always blinks 3 times (setup mode) and then presents a menu of Internet locations to select from. I select my local 2.4Mhz location, type in PASSWORD the wait for message to CONNECT to my NETWORK. After that I can wait all day and still PB fails to connect. It doesn’t go back to setup mode unless I disconnect or press the SETUP button. -
If it restarts several times, either from a power issue or a crash, it will eventually enter a fail-safe mode and go back to SETUP mode. If you power everything off for a few seconds, and back on, what does the LED do? Does it ever blink/flash once started?
Answer - It does NOT restart. Remove power. Blinks once the 3 times after that. (SETUP mode).
It doesn’t blink once powered. The LED stays a steady orange color. -
If the button is held for several seconds, or the BTN signal is otherwise shorted to GND (I think you mentioned that you soldered an external button in a previous post), it will go back to setup mode. Can you check the BTN signal to see if it is getting shorted?
Answer - Yes I can and have checked with a continuity checker built into my VOM. -
If it can’t save information about the mode in flash memory for some reason, it could default to SETUP mode. Do you have problems with other files, like saving patterns? Is it intermittent?
Answer - “About the mode”, not sure what this means. Always defaults to SETUP mode. Saving patterns, I would have to get onto the web page to confirm this but as I’ve stated, unable to get onto the web page because the PB board won’t latch on.
Thanks you