Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

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thnikk
 
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Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

Hello,

I made a post in 2018 regarding 15 trinket M0s that weren't working (viewtopic.php?f=52&t=145126). I've been a lot busier since the time of this last post and ordered a lot more, and particularly at the start of the pandemic, I received a lot of bad boards. My count ended up at 69 with my last order, but since I had already received replacements for the 15 in my last post, I thought it was worth getting a programmer to try to fix them. I ended up recovering all but 8, but I made a programming jig and already received some replacments, so I should be able to fix most future boards.

I also order a lot of ItsyBitsy 32U4s. They've generally been a lot better, and I probably only had 2-5 bad boards after years of ordering them, which I didn't think was that big of a deal. However, I received 24 bad boards in my second to last order of 100. I had some time to look into it and they were in DFU mode, so I tried following the guide here for flashing the bootloader: https://www.designedbycave.co.uk/2020/I ... ootloader/

I successfully flashed the bootloader on all 24 boards and thought the problem was solved, but programming with the Arduino IDE or Platformio both result in these boards being completely unresponsive and unable to enter bootloader mode with the reset button. I even tested a simple blink sketch and got the same result. I'm still able to reflash the bootloader with my Uno, but I can't actually use them. Is there something I'm missing or is this problem deeper than just a missing bootloader?

I've ordered again since and my last batch of 100% all seem to be perfectly functional. Even if I can get these boards working again, almost 1/4 of my batch of 100 not working out of the box isn't great and I would appreciate better quality control. I've already been testing all of my boards before I use them for a while now, but I believed the issue was fixed when I flashed the bootloader orginally and soldered them to PCBs, which aren't particularly easy to desolder. Any help to fix or replace these boards would be greatly appreciated.

-Jack

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Just to clarify, since both are mentioned, is the current issue with Itsy 32u4's? 5V or 3V?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3675
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3677
or with Itsy M0s?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3727

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thnikk
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

adafruit_support_carter wrote:Just to clarify, since both are mentioned, is the current issue with Itsy 32u4's? 5V or 3V?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3675
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3677
or with Itsy M0s?
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3727
Sorry for the confusion. The original issue was with Trinket M0s, but this post is specifically referring to 5V Itsy 32u4s.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

OK, so 24 boards out of an order of 100 5V Itsy 32u4's were showing this issue. These were showing up in Device Manager as something called ATM32U4DFU?

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thnikk
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

I believe so, but I was using lsusb on linux. I flashed the bootloader on all of them and now they show up properly as "Adafruit ItsyBitsy 32u4 5V 16MHz", but they are still completely unresponsive.

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adafruit2
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by adafruit2 »

quite odd! if you flash it and it shows up under USB but 'unresponsive' what does that mean? cause if they show up under USB then the hardware is as least somewhat functional :)

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thnikk
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

It seems fine immediately after flashing the bootloader, but flashing a sketch seems to do three things:

1) It looks like it's just really slow. The blink sketch seemed like it wasn't working at all initially, but it is actually blinking very slowly (it seems like it's about 8 times slower.)
2) It's unable to re-enter bootloader mode by double-pressing the reset button.
3) It's unable to connect to a computer at all over USB. Nothing in lsusb or dmesg and I also tested on a Windows machine and got nothing.

I've also tested a sketch using neopixels (this is what I was originally using before I realized the boards weren't working) and the LEDs just turn and stay white.

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thnikk
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

bump

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thnikk
 
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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by thnikk »

I checked my most recent order including another batch of 100 boards and they are all fine. It seems like this batch of 24 is due to some sort of hardware issue. It's been almost 2 months since my original post and I still have almost $200 worth of dead boards, some of which I've wasted even more time soldering to boards that are really difficult to recover. I'd really like to have this resolved with either replacements or a refund, as it doesn't seem like there's any fix from the lack of a response.

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Re: Dead(?) ItsyBitsy 32U4s

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

It's confusing what's going on with those boards. Not sure why the bootloader would work but also not work. Let's just replace them.

Send an email to [email protected] with a link to this thread and your order number and they can send you 24 replacement Itsy 32u4s.

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