ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

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BluecoatEngineer
 
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 2:41 am

ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

Post by BluecoatEngineer »

I got a couple of the ItsyBitsy RP2040's and ran into weirdness while testing out the Pico SDK examples. On my first attempt to load 'blink' I neglected to set PICO_BOARD=adafruit_itsybitsy_rp2040 and the resultant image didn't do the board any favors. After realizing my mistake, I was able to SWD it back to life with a correctly targeted image. Calling it a successful enough night, I left the board blinking happily on my desk. The next morning, it had stopped blinking and didn't respond to reset or attempts to enter bootloader mode. I was still able to talk to it over SWD and reprogram the flash, but the program didn't appear to be running. Pulling power didn't make a difference either, at least at first. I left it unplugged for another night and when I plugged it back in for further debug, it was back to working. At least for awhile; after a couple hours it seemed to freeze again. I pulled out another ItsyBitsy and haven't had a similar problem with it yet.

In summary:

- Brand new ItsyBitsy 2040; mistakenly flashed with pico targeted image, fixed using correctly targeted image over SWD.

- 'Blink' runs fine for a couple hours before locking up. I've seen it fail with both the LED on and off.

- OpenOCD can see the board and reprogram the flash without any errors when it is in the bad state, but the program doesn't seem to run.

- Reset and power-cycling is not sufficient to recover. It has to sit unplugged for an hour or so before it'll respond. Bootsel does not work while it is in the cursed state.

- Nothing else beyond SWD (if even that) is connected at failure time.

Has anyone seen something similar with their boards or have ideas on what could be happening?

Thanks!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

Post by mikeysklar »

It is so nice to see folks using SWD / JTAG to recover boards.

Have you tried the NUKE image or the stock UF2 image that the board ships with? The combo could be used to bring it back to factory.

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BluecoatEngineer
 
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Re: ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

Post by BluecoatEngineer »

> It is so nice to see folks using SWD / JTAG to recover boards.

Well, I tried shouting all manner of fanciful swears at it but it resisted that first pass debug method and so I had to break out the big guns! :-D

I'll try the NUKE image, thanks! Maybe "something" got programmed that ought not to have been when I hit it with the Pico board image. I'm incredulous that I'd be the first one to hit that scenario, however. Annoyingly, I've had it plugged into power since I posted and, excepting the first couple of hours, it's been happily flashing and mocking me. I figure it's a trick and have an axe standing by!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

Post by mikeysklar »

Did the UF2 Nuke and Factory image help?

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BluecoatEngineer
 
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Re: ItsyBitsy RP2040 blink hangs after a couple hours

Post by BluecoatEngineer »

mikeysklar wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:57 pm Did the UF2 Nuke and Factory image help?
I've been waiting for it to lock up again and so haven't tried the nuke image; if it was in a bogus state and then recovered immediately after nuke, I'd feel better that it was fixed Once And For All. Unfortunately, I think the board heard us talking about it as it's been on its best behavior. I'll start running some more interesting cycles than a blinky on it and see if it becomes less stable. If it never happens again I'll toss nuke on it chalk it up to lab boogens.

Thanks again!

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