Cannot activate Electron

[ishinozaki]

Hello,

I use an Electron with setup/reset buttons instead of mode. I live in Manila and I can't seem to activate. The Electron keeps rapidly blinking white and that's something not listed in the troubleshooting modes guide. I used setup.particle.io to activate the SIM details and paid for it about a week ago. Since I haven't used the Electron in a while I guess it needed a firmware upgrade but it's consistently failing and showing "Aw, something went wrong." without much further details. Have tried factory resetting it before upgrading but it doesn't work either..

https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/electron/#safe-mode

How to do a factory reset

The button sequence to trigger a factory reset can be tricky. Here’s how it’s done: Video Instructions Begin holding the MODE button down. While holding the MODE button down, tap the RESET button briefly. After 3 seconds the core will begin blinking yellow, KEEP HOLDING the MODE button. After 10 seconds the core will begin blinking white. When this happens the factory reset process has begun. Let go of the MODE button. When it stops blinking white, it should begin blinking blue, indicating…

https://docs.particle.io/guide/tools-and-features/firmware-manager/electron/

Also, is it possible to use a local SIM with the Electron?

Thank you!

Isamu

[ScruffR]

It is possible to use a 3rd party SIM. If you search for 3rd party SIM you’ll find some threads.
You can also look at the Electron reference docs here
https://docs.particle.io/reference/firmware/electron/#setcredentials-

The factory reset procedure outlined in your linked thread refers to the Core not Electron.
For the Electron try Safe Mode instead, that’d be the first thing to try.

Breathing white sounds like you might have had SYSTEM_MODE(MANUAL) set in your currently running code.

[ishinozaki]

Thanks for the reply! It’s rapidly blinking white, not breathing. I have tried putting it in safe mode and flashing by holding down the setup and reset buttons, then letting go of the reset button until magenta comes up --which it does immediately, or I can wait for it to cycle again. It doesn’t stay breathing magenta though and just goes back to rapid white.

I followed this: https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/electron/

I don’t remember ever setting it to SYSTEM_MODE(MANUAL), is there a way to revert this? The firmware upgrade does not work at all and I cannot see my electron from the list of devices.

Verified that the U270 version I have should work with Asia here: Electron + Particle SIM + U260/U270 confusion in AU = unable to activate

Isamu

[ScruffR]

Have you got CLI installed (including dfu-util)?

If so, you could flash the device via DFU Mode (blinking yellow) back to the original tinker app

particle flash --usb tinker

And if you wish you can update to the newest stable system version

particle update

[ishinozaki]

I'm getting this error:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Isamu>dfu-util -l
dfu-util 0.9

Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2016 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to dfu-util / Tickets

C:\Users\Isamu>particle flash --usb tinker
Found DFU device 2b04:d00a
checking file C:\Users\Isamu\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\binaries\electron_tinker.bin
spawning dfu-util -d 2b04:d00a -a 0 -i 0 -s 0x08080000:leave -D C:\Users\Isamu\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\binaries\electron_tinker.bin
dfu-util 0.9

Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2016 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to dfu-util / Tickets

Opening DFU capable USB device...
ID 2b04:d00a
Run-time device DFU version 011a
Claiming USB DFU Interface...
Setting Alternate Setting #0 ...
Determining device status: state = dfuIDLE, status = 0
dfuIDLE, continuing
DFU mode device DFU version 011a
Device returned transfer size 4096
DfuSe interface name: "Internal Flash "
Downloading to address = 0x08080000, size = 5776
Download [=========================] 100% 5776 bytes
Download done.
File downloaded successfully
Invalid DFU suffix signature
A valid DFU suffix will be required in a future dfu-util release!!!
Cannot open DFU device 2b04:d00a
Error during download get_status

Error writing firmware...Invalid DFU suffix signature
A valid DFU suffix will be required in a future dfu-util release!!!
Cannot open DFU device 2b04:d00a
Error during download get_status

C:\Users\Isamu>particle update

!!! I was unable to detect any devices in DFU mode...

Your device will blink yellow when in DFU mode.
If your device is not blinking yellow, please:

1. Press and hold both the RESET/RST and MODE/SETUP buttons simultaneously.

2. Release only the RESET/RST button while continuing to hold the MODE/SETUP button.

3. Release the MODE/SETUP button once the device begins to blink yellow.

C:\Users\Isamu>particle update

Your device is ready for a system update.
This process should take about 30 seconds. Here goes!

! An error occurred while attempting to update the system firmware of your device:

Invalid DFU suffix signature
A valid DFU suffix will be required in a future dfu-util release!!!
Cannot open DFU device 2b04:d00a
Error during download get_status

Please visit our community forums for help with this error:
https://community.particle.io/

C:\Users\Isamu>

[ScruffR]

You can ignore the invalid suffix error, it’s more a warning than an actual error.

But no idea why the second particle update didn’t work.
Maybe you can try the manual update procedure shown here (the binaries can be downloaded at the end 0.5.2 section)
https://github.com/spark/firmware/releases/latest