RP 3b+ HeaterMeter boot woes


 
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Paul Frere

TVWBB Member
I have just finished my HeaterMeter from Bryan's nicely prepared and priced kit. I am an experienced electronics tech, MSEE, sometimes programmer and had no serious problems with it. No parts left over. No parts short. :)

When I first tried to boot using the heatermeter software, I got the following with the RP red power light: long(~1.5 sec.) red, off, long red, then a repeating code sequence of four dashes, three dots, and a dash. My Google-Fu can find no references to RP flash codes anywhere.

Long story short, I have tried several power supplies, all providing a solid 5 volts measured using my USB volt-ohmmeter. I have tried booting with and without the heatermeter hardware connected. Always the same, only the red light and the same flash code.

So I downloaded the RP NOOBS software and programmed that to a micro-SD. NOOBS seems to boot correctly; I get a red, a green, then red and some flashes of green. The RP is blind, so I cannot get any info on what is happening, but from the lights it looks like it is happy.

I have also downloaded (from https://heatermeter.com/dl/), programmed and reprogrammed several different micro SDs with the heatermeter software. My main img has been heatermeter-bcm2709-stable_14-WaveLan.img which is programmed with my wifi information. I have created, downloaded, and tried it two or three times. One odd thing is that when I "verify" using Win32 Disk Imager, I often get an error at sector 8192. The presence or absence of this error doesn't change anything. This has occurred with three or four different micro-SDs created on two different Win10 computers. I have also tried the standard image lede-brcm2708-bcm2709-rpi-2-squashfs-sdcard.img No joy there, either. Same code.

Any ideas?
 
Did you try the latest snapshot build?
I dont think you mentioned the rPi version? Did you note that and choose the right download for the version rPi you are using?
 
RalphTrimble said:
Did you try the latest snapshot build?
I dont think you mentioned the rPi version? Did you note that and choose the right download for the version rPi you are using?
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No on the snapshot. I generally stay away from betas. The guys out front are the ones with arrows in their chests. I like the fact that the production version is months old.

I was/am working with the 3B+ and have been using that version but I did try the other one just for grins. No joy there either.
 
With the HM the snapshots are generally very stable, and often time have support for more devices and fixes for known issues. IDK specifics with the 3B+, I've only used the A+/B/zero-w pi's, I would suggest you give the snapshot a try since you seem to be throwing everything you've got at the wall hoping something sticks.
You could also connect a monitor to the rPi to see what it is doing when the HM software should be loading.
 
Thank you all. Using the snapshot build solved the problem completely. To my great joy, everything appears to be working. My case from Bryan is due to arrive on Monday, so then I can set the LED heights and solder those last six pads.

Truthfully, I don't know if I would have ever tried that snapshot. Too much experience being out in front and too many wounds, I guess. So ... thanks again.
 
Paul, you obviously know the difference between leading edge and bleeding edge.

Whereabouts in the Upper Midwest?
 
JKalchik said:
Paul, you obviously know the difference between leading edge and bleeding edge. ...
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Actually, my experience is that the difference is almost never visible though the windshield. It only shows up in the rear-view mirror.

Only certifiably paranoid technology project managers survive, and then only some of them.
 
No cheap shots. I'm a computer guy who does the same thing :)

I quoted the manual ( wiki ) in my first reply.
 
Steve_M said:
My takeaway from this is that computer folks never RTFM until they absolutely have to!
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Steve, that's pretty much untrue in my case. There's a reason I still have almost 2' of shelf space dedicated to HP-UX documentation, in spite of the fact that I can probably recite most of it verbatim (25+ years.) I've thoroughly irritated project managers when I told them to add 3 days for documentation review. "There's no time for that." "This project ain't happenin' without it."

Paul has a point. All too many times these days, the snapshots are simply little more than development in progress. Bryan's really appear to be more than QA ready. The difference also isn't necessarily evident, even from the release notes. You have to know and trust the people behind the project to be able to use the snapshots effectively.
 
JKalchik said:
... Paul has a point. All too many times these days, the snapshots are simply little more than development in progress. Bryan's really appear to be more than QA ready. The difference also isn't necessarily evident, even from the release notes. You have to know and trust the people behind the project to be able to use the snapshots effectively.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, I did not intend any judgment of Bryan. As far as I can tell he is a great guy doing quality work. Certainly the two-board kit was a bargain considering the quality and the price. I am optimistic that the software will be of similar quality.

My avoidance of betas is just a general principle of survival that I have learned over the years. Even with the highest quality team with the best intentions, and even with full automated regression testing, a beta is released so that others can help find some of the additional bugs that undoubtedly lurk. I am grateful for the early adopters because their work improves the product, but particularly in this case where I am totally new to the product and probably can't tell a bug from a feature I fear automatically fear the beta.

Surprisingly then, in this case the beta turned out to my friend! Life is full of surprises.
 
I understand the hesitance to use a beta, but the HM is a standalone system that can't effect anything else, the worst thing that could happen is you have to download and flash the release version again if the beta gives you issues. In your case the release was giving you nadda, so why not try the beta!
Since you're new to the HM... The software is pretty mature, major changes usually aren't being made in the beta's these days, generally they are for new device support or bug fixes. This makes them a pretty safe bet to try, particularly if you are using newish pi's and other devices.
 
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