Broken Dongle?

joplimatjoplimat Chattanooga,TN
in Cyton
I've been working with the OpenBCI hardware for a few hours now and I
can't seem to get the dongle to show that it has powered up. I'm curious
whether it has been damaged in shipping or possibly some static
discharge when it was first handled (we are using the hardware for
research and I was not the first to come in contact with it). Should the
dongle show a blue powered LED when it is first plugged into the USB
port?
If the dongle is broken, is there another way to get the data
from the OpenBCI board? I appreciate any help that can be offered.

Thanks!

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Have you tried another laptop? Are your FTDI drivers up to date? Is the COM or /dev/ port showing up in your devices list? Which OS and version? Did the previous user have it working?

    http://docs.openbci.com/tutorials/01-GettingStarted#getting-started-w-openbci-iii-prepare-your-openbci-hardware

    The dongle must be used to get the data. (BLE protocol not yet implemented, and is also very slow.)


  • joplimatjoplimat Chattanooga,TN
    That tutorial is what I was following while I was setting it up. I have tried it with multiple computers. Tried it on Xp, Vista, 7, and Linux 14.04. I double checked that the drivers were installed and up to date. The dongle has not shown up on my devices list and is not registering in my device manager on either operating system when I plug it in. The previous user did not do the setup of the device.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    OK, thanks. It sounds like you've covered all the bases. Send an email to contact at openbci.com, include a link to this page. My guess is that they can exchange your dongle for you. Normally when you plug in the dongle, the red LED (TXD) flashes a couple times, then the blue LED (RXD) comes on solid. 

    Joel @biomurph might have some more comments. It seems unlikely that the firmware could need reflashing, since your previous person did not do anything with it. In any case you need a COM port showing up to reflash.


  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    @joplimat, please send an email to our contact address that William mentioned above and we will address this issue there.
    We have ESD protection on the Dongle inputs, but if you are not seeing the device show up on your computer, then it may have been damaged somehow.
    All of the Dongles are programmed and tested before shipping.
  • joplimatjoplimat Chattanooga,TN
    thanks so much for your help!
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