32-bit board, blue LED does not blink 3 times when powering on

grantgrant
edited December 2014 in Cyton
Basic Problem:
I am following the instructions "Getting Started w/ OpenBCI", where it says the blue LED on the OpenBCI board should blink 3 times when you flip the switch to "PC". When I flip the switch, it doesn't blink. The blue light goes on and remains steady.

4. Switch your OpenBCI board to PC (not OFF or BLE)

Make sure to move the small switch on the right side of the board from “OFF” to “PC”. As soon as you do, you should see a blue LED blink 3 times. You don’t press the reset button just to the left of the switch. If the LED still does not blink 3 times, make sure you have full battery. If you’re sure your batteries are fully charged, consult the hardware section of our Forum.



Confirmation that I followed the instructions up to that point:

I have followed the preceding steps correctly, I believe: I installed the FTDI driver; the dongle is inserted with the switch in the GPIO6 position, the blue LED is on, and occasionally other lights flash; OpenBCI GUI seems to be working and I can see and select the serial port, I was able to confirm that it writes something to the Saved Data file that I named. The batteries were setup according to the instructions.


What I tried, plus results:

I connected my electrodes as per the "Crude" instructions further down the page: 

Connect your electrodes to the OpenBCI board: Black->BIAS; White->SRB; Gray->N1P"

At one point, I saw some activity that resembled a signal, but that was before I attached the electrodes (black to right earlobe, white to left earlobe, grey to left frontal lobe). Once attached, I just got RAILING.


OS plus version:
All this is on a MacBook with OS X version 10.9.5.

My questions:
Since the first deviation from the instructions was that the lights didn't blink 3 times, I am wondering if anybody can provide any more info about what that might signify. Is that likely to be a key factor for my downstream failure to get a worthy EEG signal? And, if so, is there a known remedy?

Thanks,

Grant

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Grant, it sounds like you have the 32-bit board.

    See if this comment answers your questions,


    William
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Since you have Mavericks, I assume you've read these posts and followed their instructions,

    http://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/196/os-x-and-virtual-com-ports-mavericks-yosemite-note/p1

    http://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/199/latency-timer-os-x-new-info-plist/p1
  • grantgrant
    Hi William,

    Yes, that did the trick. At least I am now getting a signal.

    For the sake of people reading this thread, there were 2 salient points from your first link that I will repeat here:
    1) Unlike the 8-bit board, the blue LED on the 32-bit boards are behaving normally when they go solid right away--they do not flash. (I am assuming this is true of all 32-bit boards, not a variation depending on which production run the board came from. See below.)
    2) If the top row of pins don't work, try the lower row (i.e.: the row closer to the board), as there appears to have been a change to the default pins in the last production run.

    As for the OS X issues, I will review those at my first opportunity tomorrow. 

    Many thanks!!

    Grant
  • dhruvsakalleydhruvsakalley
    Hi,
    I tried to power up my 32-bit OpenBCI board yesterday and it did not start at all. I suspect the batteries were the problem since they were low drain batteries, I'll retry with high capacity batteries today but I was sort of surprised, is that normal?
    Also the voltage rating mentioned is 3.3V~6V and I read that the draw is about ~50mA, am I correct with this information? shouldn't the low-drain batteries be at lease able to start the board?
    Regards,
    Dhruv
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Dhruv, hi.

    Yes current draw is about 50 ma, so normal / low-drain batteries should be fine. No need for high drain batteries such as used with camera flash etc. Four new alkaline batteries should do just fine. Sounds like you don't have a voltmeter there? Board should run at 3.3v or above.

    Sometimes if your batteries are not all from the same new batch (you mixed various batteries around the house) -- the lowest battery in the set will impact the final voltage achieved.

    William
  • dhruvsakalleydhruvsakalley
    Hi William,
    Happy new year!
    Yes I did not check the voltage on there, It has been ages I haven't used my multimeter, now would probably be a good time to find the leads. I had the very low drain batteries from dollar store lying around, and I seriously doubt them for anything but remote controls.
    Will update tonight.
    Regards,
    Dhruv
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