Bela does not start

Chosto

Hi,

Back from the weekend I am unable to start again the system, even by disconnecting everything but barrel and USB. I cannot tell what happened - nothing special when leaving and afaik nothing happened this weekend.

No LED blinking, only the PWR led next to the barrel input when I plug the cable or when I push power/reset button.

What are my options ?

Thanks a lot

giuliomoro

Chosto No LED blinking, only the PWR led next to the barrel input when I plug the cable or when I push power/reset button.

Does it only blink briefly and then go back off immediately? Have you tried ONLY the USB or ONLY the barrel jack?

Chosto

giuliomoro Yes for all questions. I think that I have no choice but ordering a new BBB, I just wanted to make sure that there is no Miraculous Trick to do.

giuliomoro

You should first try to remove the cape from the BeagleBone first, and see if the BeagleBone powers up this way. If it does, the problem may well be with the cape.

If you need a replacement BBB, @jestern77 may still have a new one for sale for cheap.

Chosto

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I removed the cape before testing, so I think the problem is with BBB. Thank you for the hint, but as I need one pretty quick, I think I'll buy one to a local retailer.

FatJak

Hi,
Yesterday, after three months, I tried to use my Bela Pepper again, but I couldn't get it to work or access the IDE from my Mac. I tried powering it on with the power supply (-12 / +12 Eurorack) without the USB connected, then with both, and then with just the USB. Nothing happened except for the blue power LED on the BeagleBoard and two blue LEDs under the USB connector. I pressed the Reset button several times. I waited several minutes after turning it on during all these tests.
This morning I decided to check the forum and found this post. So I disconnected the BeagleBoard from the Bela to test it on its own, plugged in the power supply… what an idiot: I fried the BeagleBoard with my external eurorack 12V power supply. I took a chance and put the BBB back on the Pepper and powered the Pepper through the Eurorack power supply, and the BBB's blue power LED lights up, but the blue USB LEDs are no longer lit.
Question for yesterday:
What was the problem, are BeagleBoards really that fragile and prone to failure with no possible solution? Could they breaks down without being used ?
Question for today:
Which BeagleBoard can I use today to replace it? Any Beaglebone Black ?
Question for tomorrow:
How can I replace myself?

giuliomoro

FatJak What was the problem, are BeagleBoards really that fragile and prone to failure with no possible solution? Could they breaks down without being used ?

Two of the status LEDs on mean that the CPU is OK. There may have been some memory corruption on the storage, which lead to it not booting properly. Were you using an SD card? That may have failed, or needed popping it out and back in. If you were not using the SD card, I am wondering what might have been: the built-in eMMC is pretty robust. Still, I would recommend following the instructions here to make sure no undesired writes happen on the file system, which should make it even more reliable: https://learn.bela.io/using-bela/bela-techniques/deploying-the-board/

FatJak Which BeagleBoard can I use today to replace it? Any Beaglebone Black ?

Yes, "Beaglebone Black". Just that. No "wireless" no "enhanced". "BeagleBone Green" (again no wireless, no other adjectives/names besides "Beaglebone Green") would also work, though it has USB micro instead of USB mini.

FatJak

giuliomoro
Thanks for our reply !
I wasn't using an SD card.
Well, now that the BBB is completely dead after being exposed to 12V, all I can do is find another one and try to run “deploying-the-board,” but since I change patches regularly, I'm not sure if that will be practical.
Thanks for the info on compatible BBs.
Cheers

giuliomoro

FatJak but since I change patches regularly, I'm not sure if that will be practical.

that would just mean that at every reboot where you want to edit patches, you need to run mount -o remount,rw / once