Fried Beaglebone Black?

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Ponchon
 
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Fried Beaglebone Black?

Post by Ponchon »

While attempting to wire up a gpio pin to drive a led circuit, I briefly and inadvertently touched the gpio wire to a +Vsys (5V) power wire. Judging by how the PuTTY terminal I was running immediately failed and the beaglebone has not powered on since, I am guessing that that quick contact caused some hardware damage. The only thing the BBB will do now is quickly flash the power light on any attempted startup (tested with power supply, USB and even a 3.7V LiPo battery) as described here: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=75618 and here: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=73149.

Is there any way to confirm that the Beaglebone is down for the count? If it is, are there any repair options available or is it new board time?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Fried Beaglebone Black?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Short of a full-on logic analyzer and a lot of tiny test probes, the things you've tried are probably enough proof of its death.

The GPIO pins are wired directly to the microprocessor, and if you hit one with overvoltage it can do all sorts of bad things. Repair would probably involve replacing the microprocessor, which would be a serious challenge even with a well-stocked lab.

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Ponchon
 
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Re: Fried Beaglebone Black?

Post by Ponchon »

Well, that's a shame, especially considering I didn't actually NEED to be powering the breadboard I was using with 5V...other than avoiding the use of >3.3V lines wherever possible, any thoughts on preventing another microprocessor overvoltage melt? To be honest, I'm kind of surprised such a short transient was capable of KO'ing the entire board.

Related to the possibility of repair, though, have you heard anything from Beaglebone RMA-ers about Embest's support/repair? No idea yet if they'd accept this for repair/what the cost would be, but waiting for probably 2+ weeks would be okay with me provided the board actually worked upon getting it back. To be clear, I don't intend to file an RMA--their website says they offer repair services, which *might* be cheaper than a completely new board.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Fried Beaglebone Black?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Ponchon wrote:any thoughts on preventing another microprocessor overvoltage melt?
Use buffers like the 74LVC125 between the GPIO pins and any external circuits you want to connect. Those are a lot more resilient than the microprocessor, and a lot cheaper if you happen to kill one. Power the buffer with 3.3v.
Ponchon wrote:To be honest, I'm kind of surprised such a short transient was capable of KO'ing the entire board.
I'm sure it didn't kill the whole device, just the microprocessor.

The kind of processor used in the BBB and RasPi are made for things like cell phones.. tightly controlled environments where power consumption is a major design issue. Having them out where their pins can make uncontrolled connections adds additional risk.
Ponchon wrote:Related to the possibility of repair, though, have you heard anything from Beaglebone RMA-ers about Embest's support/repair?
No, I'm afraid we don't have any information about that.

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