Is my photon dead?

I haven’t set it up… But I have the v2 Programmer, V1 Programmer and STK Link :blush:

Kind of paranoid. Except for windows! :frowning:

Let me know… Il do it!

Ok let’s get started following the readme.md found here to get your programmer shield setup: https://github.com/spark/shields/tree/master/photon-shields/programmer-shield

Be careful not to erase your photon trying some of the test commands shown there… I’ll figure out the read commands, it’s gotta be dead simple. I typically use the ST-Link v2, but have had the new Programmer Shield up and running the debugger as well.

Let me get started!

Oh you know I forgot there are some ST-Link V2 tools for Mac OS X… I just don’t use them because I like the STM32 Windows Utility. And every time I try to erase the entire chip with this homebrew tool it doesn’t seem to work… however I just tried reading the device and that worked fine.

Use Homebrew to install stlink
brew install stlink

Then run:
st-flash read photon_30003b000447343138333038.bin 0x08000000 0x100000

:boom:

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Cool… Let me go for it.

File on its way via e-mail!

Awexome thanks! Looks mostly like it should… I’ll have to analyze it further tomorrow. I’ll send you a combined binary that you can use to get your Photon restored to v0.4.6. See if you can run st-flash erase and see if it does anything… mine doesn’t, it says it does but it resets and happily connects to the cloud again so I know it’s not erased. Actually I think we can just use the write command and it will override the write protected sectors. Mine just overwrote my photon here :smile: I’ll email you the combined binary… the command is st-flash write combined-0.4.6-photon.bin 0x08000000

Kaboom! Well… It worked!!! @BDub You are the man!

I feel like a genius, although we all know you are the real genius here :blush: !

Thanks for the help and the amazing and outstanding support!

BY THE WAY: While installing the tools for the Programming shield V2… I ran into some issues with the instructions. First the link config file is not in the link. I download it manually and followed the instructions but while make install, The make process halts with an error… I am running El Capitan. Maybe that’s the issue?

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Yes :boom: This is how it’s supposed to go… I’m glad you have all of these tools.

Yeah the programmer shield v2 is fairly involved to setup… we’re working on making it easier, but most of us are still on yosemite because of various support issues with el capitan thus far. We’ll get there though when things catch up.

Aight signing off :sleeping: have a good one and thanks for doing work! :smile:

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@BDub

After further testing… I have a theory…

I set the photon to deep sleep when the percentage of battery remaining is bellow 30%… But then the battery get’s drained during the deep sleep, or during the attempts to awake from deepsleep…

Then the battery goes bellow the level where it can power the photon and keep it in deep sleep or running… After the solar cell puts a little charge in the battery… it re-boots… But it’s too little power to sustain use and then it drains quickly… And then it goes dead after booting because the battery can’t afford to give enough power to sustain the boot or photon…

And then the whole cycle goes on and on on a loop… Causing it to eventually lock or screw up the boot loader… I guess because of the repetitive attempts to boot and then the low power condition.

So I guess this is not a photon issue. It is more an implementation issue… I guess I have to give separate power sources to vVolt from another battery just to keep up with the behavior of deep sleeps… And shutdown the photon completely (have to figure out a way doing this) when the power goes bellow a threshold…

And rebooted when the power is recovered… So instead of deep sleep I need a feasible way to shutdown completely… and restart when there’s enough power.

Thoughts?

Hi,

I have the same problem with one of my Photons. My code works well on Core. I flashed the same code to 2 new Photons. One’s worked till now. The second worked for 3-4 days and suddenly stopped. Now when power on blue LED at D7 pin comes on, RGB is off. Voltage on 3.3V pin: 3.32V, on RST pin 3.29V and 0.0V when pressed. When I put it in Safe mode it flashes magenta but more rapidly than usual. Because I have neither St link nor JTAG is there a chance to find out is my Photon dead or not?

Stupid question. Had you tried flashing it after safe mode?

Yes. Both flashing custom code and tinker were unsuccessful. Although the Photon flashes magenta I think it is not in safe mode.

Is it flashing magenta or breathing magenta?

If it is flashing magenta… Leave it there and wait for a little bit… It seems to be flashing new system firmware for the photon.

Leave it alone for 5 minutes and see if it starts breathing again… The magenta flashing can be intermittent.

It flashes magenta infinitely. No sign to finish.

Il wait for better brains to comment… But I am thinking a factory reset is in order if you can’t get it to go to safe mode. But I saw elsewhere that factory reset was not recommended so… Il wait for better brains.

My guess is that as long as it is flashing or doing something with the RGB there’s hope :smile:

Had you tried entering DFU mode?

I tried. After magenta the Photon starts flashing yellow for 2 sec., after that 2 sec off, and it’s repeated. Because I am afraid it isn’t DFU mode so didn’t try any thing.

Connect it to USB try to put it in DFU mode and try flashing it using the cli tool in the command line…

It is weird… The modes you are describing are unfamiliar to me… However the fact that it is responding to some input it is reassuring that the device might be restored.

Noticing that the people from Particle hasn’t shown up here… I would send an e-mail to support.

@frlobo: thank you for your support.
It’s weekend so I think people from Particle off work. :grinning:

They usually respond even in weekends and at late hours of the night… They are owls! Workaholics!! They most be on a convention or something…