Page 1 of 1

Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:00 pm
by ygramoel
After three months of inactivity, I am trying to start using my red pitaya again, but no success :(

- When I enter my redpitaya's mac address on the redpitaya website, the ip address reported is 192.168.0.95, but when I point my browser there, it reports "Unable to connect"
- My router's client list does not include the ip or mac address
- "ping 192.168.0.95" reports "Destination Host Unreachable"
- The trouble is not with the network cable: when I connect a laptop to the same cable, it works correctly.
- On the red pitaya's ethernet plug, a yellow led on the right is blinking, but the led on the left remains off.
My conclusion: the ethernet connection is not working properly.

I downloaded the latest version of the software from the red pitaya website and copied it to my SD card, but no change.

To debug, I tried to connect over USB. (My host computer is a linux desktop)
- "lsusb" lists my redpitaya:
Bus 001 Device 024: ID 0403:6015 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd Bridge(I2C/SPI/UART/FIFO)
- The device /dev:ttyUSB0 appears
- "sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0" starts normally, but I get no prompt from the red pitaya, and no reaction to whatever I type. From time to time, weird characters appear in the minicom terminal.

Should I somehow tell minicom what communication parameters (baud rate, parity, ...) it should use?

When I power the red pitaya, a blue and green led to the side of the ethernet connector are on, and a yellow led is blinking; this all seems normal to me.

Is there anything else I can try, or should I conclude that there is a hardware problem with my red pitaya?

Re: Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:02 am
by codinghead
Hi,

I have noticed that if I power-up the RP before the ethernet cable is connected, I'm not able to connect with it. I haven't spent any time investigating why this is or what is happening, but simply ensure that the ethernet cable is connected before power is applied.

For the USB console, please try the following:

1. Connect the USB console interface before powering up RP. (It should appear as a device under /dev/ttyUSB0 still)
2. start minicom as you did before
3. Do Ctrl-A again and check in the grey bar along the bottom that the serial interface really is 115200 8N1. If not, use Ctrl-A, then Z, then O and reconfigure the serial interface.
4. Power up RP.
5. You should see the output from the kernel booting. For the ethernet interface you should look for the line:

Code: Select all

Lease of 192.168.xxx.xxx obtained, lease time 604800
6. At the end you see the

Code: Select all

redpitaya>
prompt.

If you still have no success, I'd recommend copying the output of the boot process and pasting it here - perhaps we'll see what is happening.

Good luck, Stuart

Re: Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:07 pm
by ygramoel
Thanks for the hints.

Connecting the ethernet cable before power-up makes no difference, but starting minicom before power-up (I did not know that this was possible) does indeed show the boot log (attached) , with some errors. I even get a prompt from the RP now :D

It seems that the sd card does not get mounted.

I'd like to check whether this is due to the sd card or due to the sd reader, but I don't have a spare sd card at hand, so that will have to wait a few days. My current sd card works without problems in my main computer, but I guess that does not prove that it will work in any sd reader ...

If the problem proves to be the sd reader, I guess I could use the warranty (the RP is only 4 months old)

Re: Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:17 pm
by Nils Roos
Your log got lost somehow, but from the symptoms you described it seems likely that you are suffering from a rather common problem, namely that the SD filesystem takes too long to mount. The solution is to install a newer version of the ecosystem.
(It is unlikely that you have a hardware problem. All RP software comes from the SD card, you would not get to the prompt if the card was not working at all)

You can download newer versions of the ecosystem than the one on the Bazaar page from here. Installation is covered here.

Re: Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:53 pm
by ygramoel
My initial log file was refused because of its .cap file extension (the default proposed by minicom). I have renamed it and attached it to my previous post.

Anyway, I tried the latest version of the ecosystem and it works! Thanks!

Re: Cannot connect via network or usb - hardware trouble?

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 6:14 pm
by mika33
Piggy backing on this post. I am trying to use minicom but after following the well-explained instructions from codinghead:

1. I cannot find
codinghead wrote:
Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:02 am

Code: Select all

Lease of 192.168.xxx.xxx obtained, lease time 604800
2. I cannot type anything else after everything is done loading. The logs are attached.

And the cursor just blinks next to root@rp-XXXXXX:~# at the bottom. Any help here?

minicom.txt