Bela mini plugged to USB port blinks briefly, gets stuck to solid blue light

robinm

Hi, as per title, I'm having troubles with a Bela mini. The board is plugged via USB cable to a laptop, when connected the solid blue light appears, a moment after the other light blinks briefly, then dies - the solid blue light remains on but the IDE can't be accessed with none of the tricks I've red on the forum and the website. Tried also pressing the small button behind the mini USB port during booting to no result. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot? Visually the connections seem neat and I don't see debris or immediate short-circuits. Thanks!

robinm

after flashing the SD card with the latest Bela image, the Bela mini powers up and the "heartbeat" blue light goes on normally. However, even after several minutes connected to the laptop, it doesn't show up as BELABOOT usb device, nor can the IDE be accessed. I've run out of ideas 🙁 what could the problem be?
I'm on OSX 11.7.10, bela image 0.3.8h

giuliomoro

Can you run the following commands in a terminal on your computer and post here the output they give you ?

ifconfig
cat /Volumes/BELABOOT/bela.version
ls /dev/tty*bela*
ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 -l |grep -iC3 bela

robinm

ifconfig: interface cat does not exist

if i run line by line, first line outputs:
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384 options=1203<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TXSTATUS,SW_TIMESTAMP> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280 stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280 en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=400<CHANNEL_IO> ether 60:f8:1d:aa:4d:82 inet6 fe80::855:6bdd:7d4b:7b3d%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x4 inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=460<TSO4,TSO6,CHANNEL_IO> ether 82:0f:1b:e4:0b:00 media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive en2: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=460<TSO4,TSO6,CHANNEL_IO> ether 82:0f:1b:e4:0b:01 media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6> ether 82:0f:1b:e4:0b:00 Configuration: id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0 maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200 root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0 ipfilter disabled flags 0x0 member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0 member: en2 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: <unknown type> status: inactive p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304 options=400<CHANNEL_IO> ether 02:f8:1d:aa:4d:82 media: autoselect status: inactive awdl0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1484 options=400<CHANNEL_IO> ether ce:04:5c:c4:81:34 inet6 fe80::cc04:5cff:fec4:8134%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active llw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=400<CHANNEL_IO> ether ce:04:5c:c4:81:34 inet6 fe80::cc04:5cff:fec4:8134%llw0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xa nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active utun0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1380 inet6 fe80::b679:95be:40d1:460b%utun0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xb nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> utun1: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 2000 inet6 fe80::f5d3:a8b9:abf5:53b4%utun1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>

second line outputs:
cat: /Volumes/BELABOOT/bela.version: No such file or directory

third line:
ls: /dev/ttybela: No such file or directory

last line seems to go in, with no output
(Bela mini is plugged in in the meantime)

giuliomoro

robinm second line outputs:
cat: /Volumes/BELABOOT/bela.version: No such file or directory

third line:
ls: /dev/ttybela: No such file or directory

last line seems to go in, with no output
(Bela mini is plugged in in the meantime)

Oh well all that needed to run one line at a time while the board was plugged in for at least one minute. If this is what you got in such conditions, then either the board is not powering up at all or it's indeed an issue with the usb connection... Can you send a video of the lights on the board for the first 60 seconds after boot?

It's interesting that different cables behave differently.. that's totally unexpected. Are the cables all connected to your computer directly or is there a hub in between?

robinm

Trying out a whole bunch of different USB cables, I notice that in some cases the pulsating light doesn't come on at all; in other cases it comes earlier with certain wires. I don't know if it's somehow related to the issue but it's rather curious and not random at all, meaning each cable produces always the same effect?? what kind of sorcery is this?

robinm

i was really hoping in something like this

cbmuse Yow, it was the cable! Not used to these little USB cables going bad, but the BELABOOT icon appeared
immediately on my desktop and bela.local was immediately accessed. I'm good to go, and thanks for
getting me there!

but i've tried 8 different cables...

robinm

Also additional note: this is a Bela mini I've borrowed but haven't ever properly worked on. Few days ago I was trying to power it up using a LiPo battery following the instructions at this link https://learn.bela.io/using-bela/bela-techniques/powering-bela/.
When I got to connect P2 Pin12 (PB) to ground to switch the board on, Bela mini would power up briefly and shut off - which made me think the LiPo battery I was using was out of juice. I didn't mind because I didn't have time to recharge the battery, so I postponed.

Today I got to try it again (only via USB connection for now) while I am recharging the LiPo battery separately; did I fry something before today? I would expect the board to not power up at all, but maybe I'm underestimating something that might've caused this problem (Bela not being seen as USB device, not connecting to IDE). I'm adding details that might be relevant, idk if it helps

robinm

Hi Giulio, I swear I don't know what happened. I was gonna shoot a video to show you, but using the same cable as yesterday.. Bela mini now appears as a USB device as BELABOOT and the IDE works. The computer hasn't even been rebooted, it's literally the same setup as yesterday night. Today it goes normally. As they say in these cases.. "if it works, it works". But still it would be helpful understanding what happened. Really weird

giuliomoro

Who knows ... could it be that the computer was previously battery powered and is now powered via power adapter?

robinm

Nothing like that.. the setup was literally identical between two tests. I am reassured knowing that Bela sometimes acts weird like this, so Im just gonna quietly pretend nothing ever happened ahahah