"Found a device, but not a PicoBorg"

Submitted by RoboBar on Mon, 06/27/2016 - 11:22

Forums:

We have bought two PicoBorg reverse devices, and after a brief period of working, both have decided to fail. Both cant be found, one appears missing even when using sudo i2cdetect -y 1 , the other has a fully populated i2c table but returns the error " Found a device at 44 but it is not a PicoBorg Reverse.

We have checked all wiring connections using a multimeter and bought a brand new Raspberry Pi 3.

It would be great if you could help us out.

thanks

Images: 
piborg's picture

piborg

Tue, 06/28/2016 - 10:35

Usually when i2cdetect shows every address like this it points to a wiring issue somewhere.
Since the ID is reading 00 I would suspect that either one or more GPIO pins are not working or that something is connecting SDA to ground (0V).

Try these steps noting what sudo i2cdetect -y 1 shows each time:

  1. Disconnect all devices / wiring from the GPIO so that the pins are not connected to anything
  2. Attach only one PicoBorg Reverse using the two 3-pin cables directly to the GPIO
  3. Try swapping cable #1 with the spare 3-pin cable (see diagram below)
  4. Re-attach any other devices on the GPIO one at a time, check each one
  5. Re-attach any other wiring on the GPIO

Hopefully this will point out where the problem actually is.

Cable numbering for reference:

RoboBar

Tue, 06/28/2016 - 13:52

Hi thanks for the reply :)

We have ended up buying a new board unfortunately. When we swap the new board for the old board using the same wiring and raspberry pi set up it works perfectly. Bit strange how both boards broke!

piborg's picture

piborg

Tue, 06/28/2016 - 19:26

We have seen this a couple of times before, in both cases we had managed to get the power (5V / GND) swapped around from the Raspberry Pi and damaged the on-board controller.

Can you see any sort of damage / scaring / pin-pricks on the smaller chips with 14 pins?
It is possible that the control chip is damaged, but the rest of the board could be fine in both cases.

If you are happy to post the two damaged boards back to us we would be happy to look at them and see if they can be fixed.
Given the description it is possible that replacing the controller chip and re-programming the board will fix both problems.
Please put a note in the package explaining that the boards are being returned for investigation / repair along with the address you would like them sent back to when fixed.

The address to post them back to is:

Unit 15, Earith Business Park
Meadow Drove
Earith
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire
PE28 3QF
United Kingdom

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