Gemma M0 doesn't seem to boot

[jmacready]

I purchased a Gemma M0 board a few months ago, and was able to successfully follow the "Superhero power plant" project just fine. Today, I wanted to play with the RGB color on the main.py, and I'm running into all kinds of problems. I'm using a Windows 8.1 laptop, and over the last hour or so, I've had the following issues:
- device wasn't detected, even after I installed the Windows drivers
- GEMMA drive would show up with only an empty main.py file and boot_out.txt (nothing else in the folder)
- when trying to edit main.py, would get "file or directory is corrupted"

Steps I've tried for troubleshooting:
- replace USB cable
- try different Windows machine
- "fix' the GEMMA drive using Windows utilities
- update Gemma with the adafruit-circuitpython-gemma_m0-2.1.0.uf2 file

At this point, when I turn on the Gemma, the RGB DotStar LED turns green and stays green.The GEMMA drive automatically opens on Windows, but nothing happens on the GEMMA (aka sketch doesn't run). This happens if the USB to computer is connected or not. Doesn't matter how long I wait.

[danhalbert]

Your CIRCUITPY file system has probably become corrupted. You can erase and re-create it by following these instructions: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gem ... ive-issues.

Be careful not to unplug or hard-reset (with the button) the board without doing an Eject or Safe Remove first. That can lead to filesystem corruption. It's a Windows issue: it doesn't write all the data to the USB drive promptly.

[jmacready]

First off, thanks so much for the quick reply!

I followed the directions, copied in the erase file and then adafruit-circuitpython-gemma_m0-2.1.0.uf2. The CIRCUITPY drive appeared and only had boot_out.txt on it. I uploaded a new main.py, and it doesn't seem to run the script.

I "safely ejected" the GEMMA, removed power, turned power back on. And now the internal LED blinks green, orange, blue, blue repeatedly. Tried same thing but on battery power, same result. I repeated the erase then paste uf2 a second time. Same thing.

[danhalbert]

After you upload main.py, do an "Eject" or "Safe Remove" to make sure the file is completely written. The error could be due to that, or could just be a coding bug.

The blinking colored lights report where the error is. See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gem ... atus-light. However, it's easier to debug your code by connecting up a terminal program so you can see the error messages that are printed out. See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gem ... l-software. That suggests using putty. I like Tera Term as well: https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/index.html.en.

If you can't figure out the error, paste your code here, between

Code: Select all

 tags, and we can take a look.

[jmacready]

That did it. It was missing the neopixel.mpy file. Thanks again!