HM 4.3 Build not booting

Hoping to get some help with my new HM4.3 build.

Plug in 12V power,
Display lights up
Red LED lights up, goes out for a moment then stays on steady.

Played with contrast, can get a row of rectangles on top row.

HM 4.3 with TC
Raspberry Pi 3B

May be a software problem:
I used the default (Heatmeter AP).
Image downloads fine. Copies to SD card fine. Try to verify and get a error at sector 8192. Tried two SD cards. One 8 and one 32. Both have trouble verifying. May be that is not the problem.

Ideas? Not sure if it is software or hardware?

My son built the board. He is certified and does board level work professionally. This was a Christmas present to him from me.

I am the software guy so he gave it to my to install the software.

I built a HM 4.2 and had no problems.

Looking at the basic basic trouble shooting web page would it be advisable to check the voltages?

Thanks,
Joe Widmayer

Not sure if this helps,

Plugging power to PI via micro USB, I can see the heatermeter on WiFI. A red and green LEDs light up and red eventually goes out.

Plugging in 12V not WiFI seen.
Thanks,
Joe

The verify is very hit or miss with Win32DiskImager. Some images it works fine and some it gets an error almost immediately. I think it has something to do with windows wanting to assign multiple drives to the card or something.

The LEDs on the Button Board are not useful until the microcontroller has software on it so they will be on or off randomly until the atmega is flashed. The LEDs on the Pi show its boot state. One for power, the other will flash and blink during the boot process. Since you can see the heatermeter AP when plugged in over 5V USB, but not when plugged in via 12V, it sounds like there's an issue with the 12V -> 5V power on the HeaterMeter board. There's a board image with voltages you can use to trace it from the barrel jack to the 5V regulator (the tiny subboard with 3 pins) to the 5V pins on the Pi.


If you have the HeaterMeter base board mated up with the Pi, you can power it over that 5V USB and if the rest of the hardware is ok, it will boot up and flash the microcontroller about a minute into the boot process. That might get you a step further but I'd suggest figuring out why you're not getting 5V to the Pi when plugged into 12V (unless I am misunderstanding your first post).

Dear Bryan,

Thanks. Is this correct thinking? The red and green lights do not light up when plugged into 12V so the Pi is is not getting power from the HM board? When plugging the power into the Pi via the micro USB the LEDs light up, it boots, and I can see the HM in the WiFi. Problem looks likely in the HM board.

I was able to power the board via the Pi micro USB. Connect to the HM and see the software at 192.168.201.1 So the Pi and software boot looks OK?

I will give it back to my son and let him trouble shoot the board. He is very good at that.

Thanks so much for the quick reply.
Joe Widmayer

I found the problem. I am a little embarrassed. It appears the main board was not plugged in properly.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe Widmayer

Ha ha, oh nice! Well then, that was an easy fix as long as nothing was damaged by plugging it in incorrectly. Glad you got it figured out.