Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and Power

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ajpaolello
 
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Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and Power

Post by ajpaolello »

Hello Adafruit forums!

So I have been spending quite a bit of time banging my head trying to figure out why my PiGRRL is not working right. Overall, with multimeter in hand, here is what I have discovered

Pi to HDMI screen and MicroUSB power - works
Pi to TFT screen with MicroUSB power - Screen just stays white, but turns on and Pi acknowledges power.
Pi to TFT screen with Powerboost - Screen dark. No Pi LEDS light up.
Powerboost output to GPIO 2 and 6 wires - 5 volts

Rather stumped as to what the problem is here. As i said, it works fine with microUSB but seems to not like it when I add the Powrrboost? But the powerboost does work? Hoping for some assistance!

Thanks in advanced!

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

It sounds like there are a couple of problems active at the same time: one with getting the TFT to mirror the HDMI output, and one with the PowerBoost.

For now, let's start with the TFT. Once that's working, it will be easier to debug the PowerBoost issue.

When you did the setup for the PiTFT, did you choose the HDMI morroring option?

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

Hello!

When I did the setup, I just used the image file that was provided in the Pocket PiGRRL instructions. I have not done anything in regards to hdmi mirror.

Is there something I can edit for the hdmi mirror?

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Use the installation instructions here:

https://learn.adafruit.com/pigrrl-zero/ ... e-manual-1

The RasPi hardware has gone through enough revisions that we've moved away from preconfigured OS images and toward installer scripts. We keep the existing images for historical purposes, but the link above will stay up to date with the most recent versions of Raspbian and RetroPie.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

So I should do the manual installation of the software instead?

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Yes.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

So I installed the software manually and still got just a white screen. Attempted to fix as in the troubleshooting with the ribbon cable but nothing worked (and I managed to break the clips. Oops.)

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

That adds a layer of complication. The clips hold the flex cable's contacts against the pins in the connector, and without them, the TFT won't work at all.

When did you get the PiTFT?

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

It didn’t seem to be working with the clip anyway. Still was getting the white screen.

Got it with the kit on January 3rd, 2016

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I'm afraid that's a long way past our 30-day return/replace period, and at this point we can't collect the diagnostic information that would have nailed it down as a hardware problem.

I can offer a 20% discount on a replacement, on the chance it was a hardware problem we just didn't get the chance to verify. Send a note containing a link to this page to [email protected] and the folks there will help you.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

True but it seems most likely to be a hardware issue st this point. Changing the software didn’t fix it and even fiddling with the cable to get the screen on only shows a white screen.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

Update: Decided to try a crazy idea with a Pi I have that has a bad micro sd card slot. Using a male to female connector with some wires, I hooked up the Pi to the Powerboost, through the GPIO and the ends of the Powerboost. The Pi did seem to acknowledge that it was receiving power and could boot if it had a working sd card slot. Not sure if this changes things but I thought I would share my findings.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

To confirm a hardware failure instead of a config failure, I'd have to look at the demsg trace to see what the kernel does during the hardware recognition phase. That isn't an option now.

Beyond that, we don't officially replace anything that's been outside our control for more than a month. Conditions in the operating environment have a big influence on hardware failure, and early failures generally taper off during the first couple of weeks. I'm pushing what I'm allowed to authorize with the 20% discount.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by ajpaolello »

Ok so next idea. I noticed that I could hold the ribbon cable in the TFT connector to still show the white screen. Do you think I could hold it in and then run demsg and see the output? It might not be perfect but it could work well enough to at least diagnose it?

I've suspected the screen was the cause for most of the time for this project and I suspect a hardware fault with it, since everything else seems to operate as intended.

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Re: Pocket PiGRRL - Troubleshooting between Pi, PiTFT, and P

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The 800-pound gorilla of this conversation is that the PiTFT is from 2016. It's past any support we offer, and the chance of a straight replacement is zero.

The 20% discount was a case of me cutting you a break, and at this point I'm starting to regret it. So now the offer has a time limit: if you contact [email protected] in the next 48 hours, they'll arrange a 20% discount on a replacement PiTFT. If not, we drop back to the default answer that the board is past its support period and we will not refund or replace it.

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