Need help on troubleshooting an issue with Spark Core

Troubleshooting
1

I was running a sketch on my Core using the Blynk API. Everything was great for a week and then all of a sudden, it stopped working. No changes were made to the firmware or my local LAN.

I first noticed the issue last Saturday and the LED on my Core was blinking cyan rather than breathing. I figured something on my end caused it to crash and it didn’t connect properly on setup() or some other reason that caused it to be down. I restarted it and it went back to blinking cyan (not a fast flash and not breathing, just blinking on and off).

It blinks for a minute or two and then the device restarts (LED flashes white), WiFi searches (LED blinks green), and then it continues blinking cyan. No red lights, no SOS codes, no other lights. It just stays that way.

To troubleshoot, I factory defaulted the device, reloaded wifi credentials and reclaimed the device via the CLI in command shell. As a control variable, I figured a good baseline would be to flash the Blynk example code because it worked perfectly when I first started playing with Blynk. I can’t even get that to work.

Once I factory default the device and reclaim it, I can see it and communicate with it correctly through the Particle IDE. If I flash the example code to the Core, it does as I described above.

I added the token from my Blynk app in the correct space and I opened my Arduino IDE to use the Serial console to see any output. I verified that I am using the right COM port and the baud rate is correct. Nothing in the serial console.

I requested help on the Blynk site but haven’t gotten the first response in hours (great support there, huh?) and I know there are people here that have been more than helpful with assisting me in the past. I understand it isn’t a service supported by Particle but maybe someone can provide some insight or direct me in a way that I haven’t approached the issue previously.

Thanks!

I wanted to mention that I added the line Particle.disconnect(); in the setup routine but that didn't change anything.
2

If you have an older Spark Core (and not a newer Photon etc.) then I would recommend that you apply the deep update to the TI CC3000 WiFi chip via the special firmware. The TI part just seems to lose its mind every once in a while.

In DFU mode:

particle flash --usb cc3000

You will need to add the WiFi credentials back after this update.

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3

That was tedious and time consuming but it resolved the issue!

Once again, bko, you saved the day!

Now, is that a permanent fix or is that something that will have to run routinely as it goes out?

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4

Nothing is permanent these days :wink:

And yes, you might have to do that from time to time - the Core was a first shot device (but a good one for it).

I’d say a more lasting solution might be to opt for a Photon - at least for the reason that you’ll find loads more people working with them rather than the limited number of “ol’ folks” like us that witnessed the birth and teething problems of the Core :older_man:

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