Circuit Playground Express going bad

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jgiambo
 
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Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by jgiambo »

I purchased 2 class sets of CircuitPlayground Express boards in May of 2019. Due to the pandemic they only saw light use maybe 2-3 times. However now 3 of the boards is seeing issues with their NeoPixels.

Video:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bv1du36sg2m1b ... 1.mp4?dl=0

In this video they are all programmed with makecode to play a standard rainbow animation.
https://prnt.sc/4eFPwcdulUql

This happens on USB power as well as the battery pack.

Order 2054143-7297399379
Order 2048024-6327054815

Pictures:
Front https://www.dropbox.com/s/ot6hy38mwbxc8 ... 8.jpg?dl=0
Back https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwjy6s35xaqd6 ... 3.jpg?dl=0

The have all been in the plastic cases for the most part and I cannot see any damage to the chips on the front of the board.

Thank you for any help!

-Joseph

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Can you still get the CPX's into bootloader mode? That is - press reset and get the CPLAYBOOT folder to show up?

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jgiambo
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by jgiambo »

Yes. I can upload and edit no problem. its just an issue with the neopixels as far as I can tell.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

OK, let's try a different NeoPixel test code. Try the attached UF2. Double press reset to get the CPLAYBOOT folder to show up, and drag the UF2 there. NeoPixels should light up different colors, solid, no animation, and then blink off briefly every 5 seconds.
Attachments
cpx_neopixel_test.UF2
(512 KiB) Downloaded 10 times

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jgiambo
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by jgiambo »

ok, some progress. the new firmware somehow "fixed" 2 of 3. they came into a working state and flashing the old test firmware showed a good test. The 3rd CPE is still broken. Video of what it is doing is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kp2no4pssa3mb ... 0.mp4?dl=0

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

That one appears to have a bad pixel - the one that won't light up. Since NeoPixels are connected in a chain, that one bad pixel can potentially corrupt the data stream for all the other pixels downstream.

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jgiambo
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by jgiambo »

Is there a part number for the neopixel? I could attempt to replace the pixel

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by Franklin97355 »

I don't know the footprint but we have https://www.adafruit.com/product/1655 and others https://www.adafruit.com/category/275

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express going bad

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

The CPX uses the smaller 3535 sized NeoPixels:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2686

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