I’ve got an Argon that’s unresponsive. It powers up flashing Green (or yellow?), and never goes anywhere from there. I tried to recover it using steps given to me earlier today to recover a Photon (but substituting the appropriate Argon binaries), but no luck. It says no DFU device is found.
I also don’t see it in my device manager under Ports. But it does cause the device manager to refresh each time I plug or unplug it from the laptop, so at least the device manager is aware of its existence.
Hmmm… that seemed like a great idea, and I felt lucky, but not so much.
It initially powers up with a relatively rapid flash (maybe 3 or 4 Hz) of yellow or green (kind of looks more green to me).
So then I follow their process…
To factory reset, hold down the MODE button and tap RESET. The status LED will blink:
** Magenta (red and blue at the same time, safe mode)*
** Yellow (DFU mode)*
** Fast blinking yellow (restore factory firmware)*
** Fast blinking white (factory reset)*
It goes into the Magenta flash mode, and then back to the original power-up mode (rapid yellow/green flash). But it never goes any further than that.
I’m not convinced the yellow/green flash is DFU mode, because the CLI says it can’t find a DFU device. To be fair though, the Device Manager doesn’t seem to see it either (or at least not where I can find it).
Any tips on where to go from here are greatly appreciated.
When I try to ping it from the console, nothing happens. I don’t even get the message that says a ping was sent and I may have to wait up to 15 seconds for a response. I literally see no indication at all that I tried to ping it except that the ping button on the console blinks once as I click on it.
I think I see what was unclear. I posted the instructions I followed. But those don’t represent the results I got. It comes up blinking a yellow/green - fairly rapidly (3-4Hz).
When I try to take it through the prescribed sequence. It will reach the blinking magenta phase, but as soon as I release the Mode button, it immediately reverts to the blinking yellow/green 3-4Hz mode. I am not able to get it into any other mode.
And when it’s in that mode, the CLI doesn’t recognize it as a DFU device.
Here’s a short video of the yellow/green 3-4Hz mode. But I think it looks more definitely green in this clip than it does to my eye for what that’s worth.
Holy crap - if I had the capacity for shame that would definitely be embarrassing.
OK - that made a slight difference. Now when I hold the Mode button and click/release the Reset button it goes into a Magenta blinking mode, then the green blinking mode, and finally the white (much faster) blinking mode. I release the mode button when it's in the white much faster blinking mode - and it immediately returns to the green blinking mode.
So I then try to flash firmware onto it via the CLI and get this message...
"Error writing firmware...No DFU device found"
I think you are in great hands with @ScruffR, not much I can add other than maybe checking whether you have tried getting the device in DFU mode via CLI (or Workbench)
Put the Argon in DFU mode (blinking yellow) by holding down MODE. Tap RESET and continue to hold down MODE. The status LED will blink magenta, then yellow. Release when it is blinking yellow!!
Then with the device connected via USB, use the following in terminal/workbench:
to add and clarify... you should also be able to do this via Terminal (Mac OSx) or the cmd.exe (Windows). I doubt you "need" Workbench.
so you can either use buttons to try and get into DFU mode OR you can use terminal (or from cmd.exe in Windows) and * particle usb dfu command. Is neither one working?
This message would suggest you got a really old version of CLI.
Can you run particle --version and also particle --help?
About your video, it appears the MODE button is not working (properly).
When you press/hold MODE and then tap RESET you should not see white nor green at any stage but your video suggests exactly that.
You can try connecting the MD pin to GND (which is the same as holding MODE) and then hit RESET again - then you should see distinct magenta and yellow.
Removing the connection MD-GND when you see yellow should leave the device in DFU Mode.
OK - I just tried connecting MD to GND. It behaved exactly the same as in the previous video. I can’t do a video right now, but can later today if you think that will help.
