Unable to set up Boron LTE

I just received by Boron LTE and I’m unable to get it set up. Followed the guide in the mobile app (android) and it gets stuck at the pairing step. The Boron LTE is attached to the antenna, plugged in to USB, and the blue LED indicates “listening mode” while the orange LED is rapidly flashing. After scanning the QR code, the app just says “Pairing with your Boron” - I’ve left it that way for up to 15 minutes and tried several times, but can’t get past the pairing.

Tried holding the mode button for 3 seconds and 10 seconds as in this post (Unable to pair with new Boron), but same result.

Also tried connecting with the Boron on my Win 10 computer following these instructions (https://docs.particle.io/support/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-tools/boron/). Installed the Particle CLI and ran ‘particle serial identify’ which returns the message “Could not identify device: No serial port identified”. The driver install says a driver isn’t needed for Win10 and uninstalled any drivers I had. I don’t see a new COM port or device appear when plugging the Boron USB in, so not sure how I can connect with PuTTY. The Boron remains in listening mode.

What else can I do to troubleshoot this?

Can you power cycle the Boron and off/on your phone Bluetooth, quit and start the Android app to try again?

Just to be sure, the Boron is blinking blue?

Thanks for the reply! I power cycled the Boron several times and restarted the app and Bluetooth when troubleshooting before. For the sake of being thorough, I went ahead and rebooted my phone and power-cycled the Boron just now and I still get stuck at the pairing step in the app.

Yes, the Boron is blinking blue exactly like in the image here: https://docs.particle.io/tutorials/device-os/led/boron/#listening-mode

Do you have other mesh devices that paired successfully? Just try to see if there’s a possible hardware issue

I tried setting up my Xenon and I’m facing the same issue with it: it powers on and has the flashing blue LED (“listening”), but it won’t pair with my phone. The Xenon also doesn’t get recognized when plugged into my Win10 desktop.

I also brought my Boron with me to work today to see if it would work on the Windows 10 desktop there, but I’m having the same issue: no COM port appears for the Boron when connected to the computer.

I feel like there must be something I’m doing wrong for neither the Xenon or Boron to not work with my phone or two different computers, but I can’t figure out what it is or how to move forward.

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I used Linux connect via the CLI, so I’m not 100% sure, but I think I read that device drivers are needed for the Windows serial port. Did you install those?

Thanks for the suggestion psfales. I did try installing the drivers, but the Particle installer (downloaded here: https://docs.particle.io/support/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-tools/boron/) actually says drivers aren’t needed for Windows 10 and it actually uninstalls any existing drivers.

I pulled out a linux computer to see if I could get a response that way. I get nothing on dmesg when plugging in either the Boron LTE or the Xenon (both showing the flashing blue “listening” led when plugged in).

question i have is any other usb device plugged into port showing up in device manager? also, you might want to click view/show hidden in the device manager and see if there is anything listed on com. maybe spens some time browsing links on this google search page,
https://www.google.com/search?q=troubleshoot+com+port+problems+on+win10&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS818US818&oq=troubleshoot+com+port+problems+on+win10

Yes, other devices show up when plugged into the same USB port using the same cable on my main Windows 10 machine. I also tried different ports (USB 2 and USB 3) on three different computers and get the same results.

in that case, i’m at a loss other to say this is the first time i have run particle install application that there was an info note that particle drivers are not needed on win10, in the past they have always been installed so not sure why that has changed other than particle now submits to microsoft and they should be handled thru windows update. if you have any other particle devices do they show up?

edit: another thing is i thought these mesh units were set up by bluetooth mobile app and not via usb com port. so, maybe they won’t show up as com until a bluetooth setup is done?

Did you try using the app to setup via BLE again?

Also, I believe no BLE OTA was done since you haven’t gotten it paired to your phone?

Does the device show up if you place it in DFU mode?

edit: another thing is i thought these mesh units were set up by bluetooth mobile app and not via usb com port. so, maybe they won’t show up as com until a bluetooth setup is done?

Could be? Troubleshooting the USB is maybe a bit of a sidetrack since I can't get the devices to pair. I'm just trying to get any kind of communication with these devices to work.

I have a Photon packed away in a box somewhere, so I can give that a try but I won't be able to get to that til the weekend.

@cairn, the current factory-fresh mesh devices will NOT show up as COM ports until a new DeviceOS (rc25) is flashed to them. This should occur when you do the setup via the phone app. Have you got the latest app?

Did you try using the app to setup via BLE again?

Yes. Neither the Xenon or Boron will pair with my phone after multiple tries over the last couple days.

Also, I believe no BLE OTA was done since you haven’t gotten it paired to your phone?

Correct.

Does the device show up if you place it in DFU mode?

Tried this just now with my Xenon and yes, it does show up to the computer when in dfu mode. Is there a stock firmware I can try writing to the Xenon and Boron to get them to pair?

I believe I have the latest app: version 2.3.4. I installed it from the Google Play store and I’m running Android 7.1.1.

@cairn, the Particle folks are working on instructions to flash DeviceOS (and tinker) directly to a Mesh device via DFU. This should allow devices to successfully complete their setup.

Great! I’m looking forward to getting these working, so I’ll keep an eye out for the instructions. It sounds like @emil is having the same issue (Unable to pair with new Xenon), so I think it’ll help there too.

@Arepa, take a look at the first part of @rickkas7's post in regards to flashing rc25 to your device.

If you are not using a 3rd party SIM then after flashing the hybrid bin file, flash the tinker bin file as well. Make sure you grab the correct bin files for your device.

Brief instructions are here too:

https://docs.particle.io/support/troubleshooting/firmware-upgrades/electron/#argon-boron-and-xenon

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