Minipov 4 dont work

MiniPOV4 and previous versions

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DIDDER
 
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Minipov 4 dont work

Post by DIDDER »

Hello,
First please excuse me for my English; I speak French only.

I have a minipov 4 and after assembly it does not work.
No light turns on.
I redid all the welds and I still get the same result (no light).
I also tried to connect it to my PC computer (Window10) with USB. It detects the connection but does not recognize the device.
Can you please help me with this?
Didier
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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by mikeysklar »

It looks like you have all the parts in the correct orientation. Good job.

Did you install the drivers for windows?

https://learn.adafruit.com/minipov4-diy ... oad-images

The soldering could be a little cleaner have you gone over the board with a multimeter to check conductivity. Just to make sure there are no cold solder joints (where the solder did not melt completely).

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DIDDER
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by DIDDER »

Hello,
Yes, I installed the drivers but my computer does not recognize the miniPOV
I checked all the welds with a multimeter + redo all the welds and I do not see anything abnormal. The miniPOV still does not turn on.
Can you help me please ?

Didier

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by mikeysklar »

Hello Didier,

Are you certain your AAA batteries are fresh?

Have you tried the walk through from our test page? I think the only relevant bits are sliding the power switch and waiting a full 3 seconds.

https://learn.adafruit.com/minipov4-diy ... it/testing

It is possible to reprogram the chip with an Arduino IDE, but in this case I'm more concerned that your computer is not seeing the device either. Are you using a known good USB DATA cable. Most are charge only which will not work.

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DIDDER
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by DIDDER »

Hello,

Yes, my batteries are new. With the multimeter, I can see 4.8 volts on multiple points of Minipov.
I have use the guide for build and test. I have wait waiting up to 3 seconds.
I am using a printer cable for the connection; is it sufficient?

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by mikeysklar »

@DIDDER,

Yes, a USB printer cable is great.

Thanks for testing the voltage with a mutlimeter.

Have you also tested each microcontroller pin to it's solder point for conductivity with your meter? Perhaps other verify each component leg to it's solder point?

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DIDDER
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by DIDDER »

Hello,
I checked the conductivity between each leg of the processor and the solders on the board. Everything is in order. I also measure 4.7 V between legs 7 and 9.
Could this problem come from an unprogrammed processor, because I saw that other users have encountered this problem?
Thank you in advance for your help.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by mikeysklar »

I have been on those threads as well with the unprogrammed processor. I didn't wanted to save that as a last resort.

Would you be comfortable trying to reprogram the chip using the Arduino IDE as indicated in the guide? Otherwise we can ship you one.
Re-programming the chip (advanced)

The chip in the MiniPOV4 is programmed with a USB bootloader that looks like a USBtinyISP. That means: if you are an advanced user you can use the bootloader with avrdude or Arduino IDE and selecting USBtiny as the upload protocol!

The EEPROM section of the chip is what holds the 'image', the firmware is in "Arduino-ese" and can be adjusted and reprogrammed by selecting USBtinyISP as the programmer and holding down shift when clicking upload
https://learn.adafruit.com/minipov4-diy ... usage-tips

It would involve dropping the INO here using the above settings for the Arduino IDE:

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Mi ... r/Firmware

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DIDDER
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by DIDDER »

Hello,

I tried to install the drivers for USBtiny again. The installation takes place as indicated on the site (https://learn.adafruit.com/usbtinyisp/drivers).
But when I plug the miniPOV4 into my USB cable (printer cable), the computer does not recognize the hardware. In Device Manager I don't have a USBtiny, but I have an unknown USB device (device descriptor request failed).

I have also tried reprogramming the board with Arduino IDE. While burning, the message "avrdude: Error: Could not find USBtiny device (0x1781 / 0xc9f)" is displayed.

Can I perform other checks with the multimeter on my board or is it coming from the processor?

Thanks again

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Minipov 4 dont work

Post by mikeysklar »

The only thing that comes to mind if this is not a assembly issue is to get you a new processor. If the one you have does not have a bootloader on it and was not programmed to run the MiniPOV4 test code that would explain these issues.

Go ahead and contact [email protected] with an e-mail message requesting the processor be replaced with a MiniPOV4 pre-programmed one. Then provide them with your order number and link to this thread. Let's hope that is the issue.

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