Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

CircuitPython on hardware including Adafruit's boards, and CircuitPython libraries using Blinka on host computers.

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AetherFang
 
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Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Hey! Last year I purchased a couple of Circuit Playground Bluefruits and, well, I still can't get them to work.
So far I've tried running them on Mu Editor and MakeCode. I haven't been able to get them to do anything, really. I once got the red light to blink on one of them? But that was the extent of my accomplishments. Mu Editor used to read them, now it won't at all. Computer reads the drives fine, but they don't connect very well.

I've lost track of how many times I've restarted and reinstalled them on and off over the last few months. The last few days I really sat down and tried everything I could. Currently one of them constantly disconnects and switches from bootloader to CIRCUITPY, the other is sitting in CIRCUITPY blinking every neopixel green about every 4 seconds.
Made sure everything is running current version of CircuitPython on both devices.

Running Windows 10 and using the correct cord (I've tried about 3 that I know are data cords, same result with all of them).

Any help would be hugely appreciated as I have a big neopixel project I want to get working on!

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tannewt
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by tannewt »

What are you trying to do with them? In other words, what isn't working?

Blinking green every five seconds means that the CircuitPython finished running code.py without an error.

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Any time I try to execute code on them nothing changes. Mu won't read that either of them are plugged in (also fully updated) and I can't get drag and drop MakeCode to work either.

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

1. If you double-click the reset button, do you see a CPLAYBTBOOT drive?
2. What version of CircuitPython did you load on them? What was the name of the UF2 file you used?
3. What version of Mu are you using?
4. Do you have any of the following utility programs running on your Windows machine? any third-party anti-virus, Acronis, AIDA, any backup programs, any disk monitoring programs? Are these machines administered by you?
5. Try cleaning out the USB devices on your machine. Unplug the boards and use the USB Cleanup tool described here. You will need to run it as administrator.
https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-c ... 3094694-11

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

danhalbert wrote:1. If you double-click the reset button, do you see a CPLAYBTBOOT drive?
2. What version of CircuitPython did you load on them? What was the name of the UF2 file you used?
3. What version of Mu are you using?
4. Do you have any of the following utility programs running on your Windows machine? any third-party anti-virus, Acronis, AIDA, any backup programs, any disk monitoring programs? Are these machines administered by you?
5. Try cleaning out the USB devices on your machine. Unplug the boards and use the USB Cleanup tool described here. You will need to run it as administrator.
https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-c ... 3094694-11
1. Yes, until I get a disconnect sound and then it switches back to CIRCUITPY
2. adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_bluefruit-en_US-6.3.0.uf2 initially, both updated to adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_bluefruit-en_US-7.1.0.uf2
3. Mu 1.1.0b7
4. All machines administered by me, running Avast, Malwarebytes, and NZXT CAM disk monitoring
5. Cleaned USB devices and tried plugging both back in. First one isn't showing up on the computer at all, even though it's making the device plugged in noise. Second is showing up as CIRCUITPY but still the same issue with not being read by Mu or accepting code from MakeCode in CPLAYBTBOOT

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Also the specific use I'm looking for is to run neopixels in a puppet build and have the lighting schematic be able to be changed throughout the day using bluetooth

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

Disable or uninstall those utility programs temporarily, especially maybe NZXT CAM monitoring. A number of such programs interfere with use of the the BOOT and CIRCUITPY drives. See many examples in https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-c ... leshooting.

If you have a more vanilla Windows 10 machine in the house, or a Mac or Linux machine, or even an RPi, you can try these boards on one of those.

Also, see what devices show up in Device Manager when you plug in and get the new device "ding"

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Just tried them both after turning off Avast, Malwarebytes, and NZXT CAM and no dice :(

It is coming up as Adafruit Playground Express, but gives this error code -
This device is not configured correctly. (Code 1)

The system cannot find the path specified.


To find a driver for this device, click Update Driver.
I thought that Windows 10 had the necessary drivers? Is there something I need to download?

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

It is coming up as Adafruit Playground Express, but gives this error code -
Are these Circuit Playground Bluefruit or Circuit Playground Express boards? It will say on the back.

Windows 10 will not need drivers, but you might have a leftover driver from Windows 7 if you upgraded the machine. Got to Settings->Apps, and then look for "Programs and Features" in the upper right hand corner of the Apps window. Click on that and see if there are any Adafruit drivers listed. If so, uninstall them.

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

These are both Bluefruit, sorry, brain is shot from work.

Just gave another try at checking Device manager and now one is reading as a CircuitPython CDC Control. Still no luck connecting it, and same windows error in the Device Manager.
The other came up as Circuit Python Bluefruit but still had the driver error.

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

Do you have any other machines to try these on? The fact that both don't work right (though in different ways) makes me suspect the host computer.

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Alright, got everything set up on my laptop and same issues :( Just could not get it to work.

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

Are you running the same utility programs on your laptop (e.g. NZXT CAM, Avast, Malwarebytes)?

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AetherFang
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by AetherFang »

Avast and Mbam on both, NZXT only on the desktop. I went ahead and retried on both systems with everything disabled and I'm just having no luck. Also erased and re-uploaded both of the drives. I guess the thing that confuses me most is that I got one of the drives to work for at least a little bit before it just stopped connecting. Files show up just fine under the correct designations (also cleaned up the drives) and I can copy/paste things to and from them, but they won't take code from Make Code and still don't show up in Mu. Is there any chance that I got a magnet or something too close to them? I'm not new to coding and computers, so this is honestly driving me up a wall a bit T.T

I just picked up a Feather to try out for the setup I want to do (nRF52840 with a NeoPXL8 as I realized it would probably work better for the amount of lights I will be using) so I'll try and see if I can get that working...

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danhalbert
 
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Re: Two Circuit Playground Bluefruits and neither works

Post by danhalbert »

If you load a MakeCode UF2, then to get to the BOOT drive, you should click RESET only once.
If you are running CircuitPython, need to double-click RESET to go the BOOT drive.

When you have the BOOT drive, all 10 NeoPiels should be green. If they are red, then there is something wrong with the USB connection. Usually this means a bad cable.

Exactly where does the following go wrong? I am not sure I have the errors exactly in mind.
1. Get to the BOOT drive by double-clicking RESET (or single-clicking if running MakeCode)
2. Copy 7.1.0 or 7.1.1 UF2 to the BOOT drive.
3. CIRCUITPY should appear. Does it?
4. When CIRCUITPY appears, an additional COM port labeled "USB Serial Device" should appear in the Ports list int Device Manager.

If 4 is true, but not 3, let's try reformatting CIRCUITPY.
5. Connect to the REPL via Mu (use the latest version). If necessary uninstall the old Mu, and reinstall with the new one.
6. If you can connect in 5, type this at the >>> prompts

Code: Select all

import storage
storage.erase_filesystem()
The board should reset, and CIRCUITPY should appear, nearly empty.

Let me know at what point these do not work.

Do you have access to any other non-Windows machines, or someone else's Windows machine that is not running your utility programs? A Mac or Raspberry Pi would work. See if you can see CIRCUITPY or do the above. I am still suspicious that the utility programs you are running are not being disabled completely. Or, they have installed drivers that are interfering with things, even if they are disabled.

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