Photon setup results in solid Magenta LED

Troubleshooting
1

I just recieved my photon, and tried to configure it using the Tinker app for iOS. When I did so, I was able to enter my network’s SSID and password, and the status lights followed the expected process until the flashing magenta (updating firmware) stage. The LED blinked magenta for a few seconds, but was then followed by a solid magenta LED.

The device was registered to my account, but it has always appeared as offline. I have found several posts on the forums describing similar scenarios, but have not found a solution that has worked for my device.

Any thoughts?

2

What have you tried so far?

3

I have tried the following:
Setup Using Tinker: resulted in (presumably) failed update to firmware. The device did blink cyan, which leads me to believe the network connection was successful. After a few seconds of blinking magenta, it turned to breathing magenta.

Setup Using CLI: After holding the setup button to activate listening mode, the device was recognized, and I began setup mode, but the device did not successfully connect to my network before changing to breathing magenta.

Using the CLI, the prompts said the device successfully stored the network credentials, but the status light immediately switches to breathing magenta. The device appears offline from the Build menu.

Next, I followed the tutorial found on the

[Howto] Setup photon if docs step fail

page. I could did claim the device to my account, but when I use “particle list”, the device appears offline.

That’s all I’ve done so far.

4

Is the device breathing cyan? Is it claimed under your account already?

Blinking cyan means not connected to the :cloud:

Try flashing a blank user code to trigger system firmware update.

5

The device is linked to my account, but it shows as offline. The device is not cyan, but rather breathing magenta, which is not a color that is in the docs. I tried to flash a blank code to the device, but I don’t believe that is possible with the device being offline.

6

That's safe mode. That means the system firmware is running, but your user code isn't. Try refreshing the IDE to see if it shows up as online. Then try flashing Tinker or "blink an LED" to it. Watch the LED to see if it blinks when updating.

7

When I flash one of the programs to it, the LED does not change, and the IDE status messages are as follows:

"Flash successful! Please wait a moment while your device is updated…"
followed by “Ready.”

Once that’s done, the LED is still blinking magenta.

8

Blinking magenta means that it's updating firmware, which is normally a good thing.
If you're willing, you could try upgrading the system firmware yourself, using the CLI. That might fix the issues you're facing.

9

I’m up for it, but is there a page that details how to do the update through the CLI?

10

Yup, over here: https://github.com/spark/firmware/releases/tag/0.4.3-rc2
You’d need DFU-util as well, for which you’ll find great install guides it you use the forum search.

11

Thanks - I’ll try it

12

After running the second command on the instructions, the CLI says the “file downloaded successfully” but after that I get an error saying “Error during download get_status”. Is that related to my issue or should it not make a difference?

13

It is a known DFU-util error.

14

If it is a known error, does that mean the device should still have the current firmware, or is there another set of steps I should take?

15

“Error during download get_status” can be ignored. The firmware is flashed correctly.

Are you still having issues?

16

Yeah, after the update, the device went from flashing yellow to breathing magenta. I would like to try flashing Tinker or “Blink and LED” to it. Is it possible to do this over serial instead of through the cloud, since that seems to be a problem?

17

Breathing magenta means hey i’m connected to the :cloud: but not running user firmware. That means everything is working fine. Cam you try flashing the blinky example?

18

When trying to flash a project using the CLI, how do you reference the Blink app? What do I call it as the file name?

particle flash Photon [file name]

19

If I try to flash the Tinker app, I get the following error:

Token error: { [Error: form-data: ENOENT, open 'binaries/photon_tinker.bin'] errno: -2, code: 'ENOENT', path: 'binaries/photon_tinker.bin' }
flash device got error: {"errno":-2,"code":"ENOENT","path":"binaries/photon_tinker.bin"}
Potentially unhandled rejection [1] Error: form-data: ENOENT, open 'binaries/photon_tinker.bin'
at Error (native)

20

You can use tinker since that’s provided - particle flash photon_name tinker