Hi Everyone,
I've got 32x64 LED display being driven by the Matrix Portal M4. I've got a bit of python code that displays the current time and fetches data from a local webserver. After seemingly random periods of time the display will stop updating (sometimes an hour, sometimes a full day!). I have the Matrix Portal running off my laptop's serial port and I have "screen -L /dev/ttyACM0" running at all times. I'll see the usual log output being written when its healthy, but when it fails I just get "[screen is terminating]" and nothing useful in my log file!
Is there lower-level debugging I can do on this board? I've seen mentions of 'serial' connectivity, but I'm not sure if that is just referring to the USB debug output I'm already getting. I've got a soldering iron and pins on standby if I need to wire up something to troubleshoot further; just let me know what to do!
Thanks for looking;
Joe
Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
- joeboese619
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2021 8:09 pm
- tannewt
- Posts: 3304
- Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2016 8:48 pm
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
This can happen if the firmware hangs. The hang will starve USB and stop it from working.
Generally I use GDB at that point to see where the code is stuck. I have a GDB tutorial here: https://learn.adafruit.com/debugging-th ... 1-with-gdb
I use the same general approach for the SAMD51 and other Cortex-M microcontrollers.
Generally I use GDB at that point to see where the code is stuck. I have a GDB tutorial here: https://learn.adafruit.com/debugging-th ... 1-with-gdb
I use the same general approach for the SAMD51 and other Cortex-M microcontrollers.
- yemo20
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:59 am
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Hi there, I am facing the same issue here (not sure if it's the same cause though). My display essentially 'hangs', and the Matrix Portal Neopixel LED freezes in Blue state, and then I have to manually restart the display to reset everything. Tried implementing wifi.reset() and supervisor.reload(), but unable to get around this issue yet. Any suggestions? I am using the WiFi Manager method as described in the tutorials.
Thanks!
Thanks!
- joeboese619
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2021 8:09 pm
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
I didn't get around to going the gdb route. I can say I have 2 totally separate sets of hardware and both freeze in this manner. And I hacked around the issue by having some automation that power cycles the board when it stops fetching data.....
- yemo20
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:59 am
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Thanks Joe -- yup, I was reading more posts in the forums, and looks like that's what folks are doing for their projects as well: https://github.com/metro-sign/dc-metro/issues/3
Kind of disappointed that I invested in the Matrix Portal to make it easier to connect vs. using a Raspberry Pi to run the display. Eager to solve this though, since I think it's got a ton of potential.
Kind of disappointed that I invested in the Matrix Portal to make it easier to connect vs. using a Raspberry Pi to run the display. Eager to solve this though, since I think it's got a ton of potential.
- yemo20
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:59 am
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Just thought to bump this up. What's also getting in the way here is that the watchdog timer has a limit of 16 seconds, which appears to be less than the time it takes to successfully reconnect to Wi-Fi in some instances, so results in the board going into a continuous restart loop for several minutes over the course of the day. Any suggestions to fix?
- drastamat
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2022 10:33 pm
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Same issues as here. Haven't made any progress on debugging the freeze. Also have problems with the ESP chip failing within an hour no matter what I try.
Does anyone have any tips?
Thank you.
Does anyone have any tips?
Thank you.
-
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:45 am
Re: Matrix Portal Display freezes at random intervals
Hey, me too! I'm glad I'm not going crazy. How do people do the watchdog process? I'd be happy(ish) if I could just restart on a crash but I don't get how I'm supposed to code that. There is a watchdog library in Micropython, but I don't think it's for the same board as in the M4. Right?
--Ernie
--Ernie
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.