Hi, Im having a few issues this year were when i make a small change within my lights / system my main controller gets quite upset and forgets/ deletes the cape signature / eeprom info. to the point were i have to go into cape info redownload the firmware and then sign the cape again with my original falcon email. Anyone have issues like this before? Second year on the lights and it seems like I'm having big issues already.
Cape, He123 Issues, need to keep upgrading cape firmware
- Thread starter lmpearce
- Start date
The eeprom and licence should only need writing once, it's written to a chip on the HE123, and should be stored there "permanently"
If it's constantly needing being to be rewritten, one of three things could be happening- from most likely to least likely:
Firstly it could be the chip failing on the board.
Secondly could be an issue with your SD card. I've seen the problem before on reading and interpreting the contents of the eeprom
Thirdly, it could be a software fault that's corrupting the eeprom contents.
I would suggest getting and building a new SD card for the BBB and try using that. It's the easiest one to sort and rule out.
There are some (not so straightforward) ways of checking #1, which I may be able to assist with one evening (Sydney time) in zoom.
The software side is highly unlikely as it would be affecting many users of FPP (including myself) who run it as a controller.
If it's constantly needing being to be rewritten, one of three things could be happening- from most likely to least likely:
Firstly it could be the chip failing on the board.
Secondly could be an issue with your SD card. I've seen the problem before on reading and interpreting the contents of the eeprom
Thirdly, it could be a software fault that's corrupting the eeprom contents.
I would suggest getting and building a new SD card for the BBB and try using that. It's the easiest one to sort and rule out.
There are some (not so straightforward) ways of checking #1, which I may be able to assist with one evening (Sydney time) in zoom.
The software side is highly unlikely as it would be affecting many users of FPP (including myself) who run it as a controller.
there was one version of FPP i think in th 9.2 range that has issues reading the BB48shift - what versin of FPP are you using ?
The HE123 uses the regular/legacy BBB48String driver, it does not use the BBShiftString driver. The former is direct Pin to port, the latter uses Shift Registers to drive the outputs.
sorry i meant the BBB48 string
i had the same issue, it would delete teh eeprom, wouldnt output, would play up, and the logs showed it was having trouble reading the BBB48string, the very next FPP update fixed the issue
i had the same issue, it would delete teh eeprom, wouldnt output, would play up, and the logs showed it was having trouble reading the BBB48string, the very next FPP update fixed the issue
- Thread starter
- #6
I’m currently using 8.4 by the looks of it. But I’m sure I have used the upgrade at the start of this year to get into the 9 . Somthing firmware. I have attached a screenshot above. Have resigned the cape this morning and still working after a restart but when I go to sign my second key I get an error contacting api. Do you think this would be a SD issue as described above ? 
It sounds like yet another case of a board being bricked by the FPP licence system breaking. Erasing the eeprom manually has been the only way I've ever got boards back to life.
auschristmaslighting.com
Falcon Player - FPP EEPROM erasing instructions
The EEPROM on FPP capes will sometime become corrupt which bricks the controller. The instructions in the link and attachment were created by ACL's Skymaster to assist me with some fiddling I was doing with cape EEPROM images. Included in the instructions is the process to erase/zero all of the...
auschristmaslighting.com