Sigh...Just had a Spark core die?

Troubleshooting
1

While doing a flash of one of the two Spark Cores I have… all the lights went out… nada. nothing… switched it out with my other Spark Core and it flashed just fine and ran the sketch

At the moment the only indication that someone is home is a short lighting of the D7 LED when the reset button is pushed (the mode switch has no effect) . I cannot “see” it on my Windows 8 USB connection so I can not probe any further. Changed USB cables , changed to a USB power supply…nothing.

Suggestions?

David G.

2

Hi,

I just had something similar, re-flashed an existing sketch that verified fine. The core rebooted and now all I see the a constant D7 led that is lit up. The main RGB LED isn’t glowing/blinking. I tried powering off and on, same. The reset button doesn’t work as well.

3

I’ve got exactly the same issue - it was working 30 mins ago, now nothing but the D7 light :frowning:

4

Has any of you already tried a factory reset?

1 Like
5

@sierrasmith71 @kidrock @bedsingar
In worst case scenarios, a factory reset should do the trick. Try this with the Core not connected to anything else.
http://spark.github.io/docs/#/connect/troubleshooting-step-3-reboot-and-clear-memory

1 Like
6

Yep, that solved the issue, same sketch uploaded successfully.

2 Likes
7

Thanks…Cured the problem, never thought of trying that. It is now part of my bag of tricks!

David G.

2 Likes
8

@mohit thanks - but unfortunately this didn’t fix the problem for me. I’ve had to use the factory reset a few time already but now can’t even get that to work!

Here is a video of what is happening:

Thanks

9

Hi @bedsingar - a factory reset actually involves tapping the RESET button as well. Here’s what you do:

  1. Hold down the MODE button
  2. Tap the RESET button
  3. Continue holding the MODE button for 10 seconds until the LED flashes white

Try that, and let us know how it works! Thanks for the video, super helpful for diagnosing issues.

1 Like
10

Yeah that’s done it I can’t have been reading it correctly!

Out of interest though - if you hold the mode button without pressing reset - what is it actually doing when the core is working normally? - As this has enabled me to connect via usb previously and re enter wifi credentials.

Thanks

1 Like
11

That clears its memory of Wi-Fi networks:

http://docs.spark.io/#/start/buttons

12

looks like im having a similar issue. maybe im not doing the hard reset properly…but i feel like ive done it on another spark core.
here is my video:

13

@avidan what were you doing before that happened to your Core? any chance something was shorted?

14

it died during a flash process. although i was also holding a fluffy cat and shuffling with leather bottom shoes on my new carpeting…but wore a anti-static wristband. so it couldnt be that…
luckily i have 2 sparks, so im gonna get back to looking at that one once i have my project up and running. if you guys want to do some troubleshooting on it, let me know.