"init timeout ... retry initialization" -> reload firmware

johanpingjohanping
edited May 2015 in Cyton
I am using an Open BCI board v3 with the ADS1299 chip and am having problems with it today.  A few weeks ago the board was working just fine and I even have data from those trials. I  have tried new batteries and plugging the dongle in first and then turning on board and also resetting board.

The port is being recognized as COM7 and the dongle has a steady blue light when I plug it into computer. I have the dongle set to gpio6 as normal.  I run the OpenBCI_GUI in Processing and then the program opens, and I can click COM7 from the serial ports menu and then when I click "Start System" it tries to initialize communication with BCI Board and then it gives me

"Init timeout Verify your Serial/COM Port Power DOWN/UP your OpenBCI & USB Dongle Then retry Initialization"

(all of which I have tried various times.)  If anyone could help me out it would be much appreciated! Thank you!  

Also, it seems as though board and dongle are communicating because when I click "Start System" the open bci board lights up blue next to the "DB" block.  The program is running fine too, it will playback saved data files and do the synthetic streaming just fine. It is live data stream that is giving me trouble.

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited March 2015
    Johan, do you have access to another computer you could test it on? This would tell us if the issue is with OpenBCI or the laptop, OS, etc. Is your board a 32 bit or 8 bit? Sounds like 32 with the solid blue LED. When the GUI is running do you see little LED flashes happening on the dongle? This blinks as commands are sent to the main board.

    Which version of Windows? Also suggested is to uninstall, reinstall the FTDI drivers. I assume you've powered your laptop down and back.

  • johanpingjohanping
    Hi wjcroft,

    Thanks for reply! Is definitely 8 bit board, yes used my professor's macbook air (OS system) and he is having exact same issue as me. We are not getting the LED flashes on the dongle but if I try to upload random code using Arduino (to dongle) then I do get the appropriate flashes so perhaps this is not an issue with the hardware but instead the Processing software?  I am running WIndows 7 and will try uninstalling/reinstalling drivers... have done laptop reboot several times. 

    It is interesting that both professor and I are having this same problem...

    thanks again!
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Hmm, I thought the original 8 bit boards flashed their onboard LED a few times before turning on solid. Does yours flash some when just switched on? 32 bit board does not do this.

    From your dongle description, it sounds like that is working ok.

    Did your MacBook friend at one time have it working ok? If this is the first use on Mac, you may need to tweek drivers there.

  • NeuroJoeNeuroJoe
    Thanks for your help wjcroft, I am the other person trying to get it up and running on my Mac. I have not had it working before but do regularly use the Arduino IDE. I will disable the Apple FTDI driver next week when I'm back in the lab and give it a shot. 

    Joe
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    I have seen this problem that you describe before. I think it is the Processing sketch.
    Are you running the Processing from the executable? if so, try running it through Processing.
    Also, you can control the board via any serial terminal, like the terminal window in Arduino IDE.

    Open the terminal in Arduino, you will see the blue LED blink just like an Arduino UNO.
    After a moment, the board will send a short header that includes the ADS and Accelerometer device IDs, followed by $$$
    Now try sending a '?' (make sure that you select "no line ending" from the drop-down at the bottom of the terminal window)
    You should see a long list of register values from the ADS and the Accelerometer.
    If you DON'T see this, then something is wrong with the board...
    If you DO, which is more likely, then there may be a prob with Processing and the serial port.


  • johanpingjohanping
    When I send a ? then nothing happens in the serial monitor, just a blank window... does this mean there's a problem between communication with the board and the dongle?
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Johan, thanks for your test. However we have still not yet confirmed that your laptop / OS / Processing / or usb port is not a factor. Can you try this same serial terminal test on another machine? You should see some blinkys happening on the dongle LED as you are typing / get the response. Follow Joel's instructions above.

  • johanpingjohanping
    I did same serial terminal test on a desktop and got the same result - however I was also having trouble finding serial port for Processing and trouble running Open BC GUI on this desktop - surprisingly though, the arduino recognized the COM port with no trouble ...  
  • johanpingjohanping
    P.S. Thank you so much for your continued support :)
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    hrm.
    Please try another simple test. 
    Plug in the dongle, and make sure the blue light is on and switch set to gpio6.
    turn on the OpenBCI board.
    open up a terminal window (arduino IDE terminal or TeraTerm or whatever)
    when you open up the terminal, take note of the LED that is on the OpenBCI board.
    This LED should behave just like the LED on an Arduino UNO. It should blink three times, indicating that the ATmega has been remotely reset. 

    If you see the blue LED on the OpenBCI board blink like this when you open the serial terminal, then at least the dongle and board have established communication. At that point, you should be able to query the peripheral registers by sending '?'

    Also, make sure that your serial port is set to 115200 baud!
  • NeuroJoeNeuroJoe
    edited March 2016
    @wjcroft, it doesn't look like I have that Apple FTDI driver on my 10.9.4 Mac: 

    "mbjbb544bhigg:PlugIns burdoj$ sudo mv AppleUSBFTDI.kext AppleUSBFTDI.disabled
    mv: rename AppleUSBFTDI.kext to AppleUSBFTDI.disabled/AppleUSBFTDI.kext: No such file or directory"

    thanks, joe


  • NeuroJoeNeuroJoe
    It does seem to be a Processing/OpenBCI GUI issue. I can open up the Blinky sketch in Arduino and send it to the OpenBCIv3 board via the bluetooth dongle successfully. The Tx and Rx lights flash on the dongle as info is being transferred, and I'm now staring at the blue LED next to D8 blinking rhythmically because of the sketch upload. But I'm still getting the ""Init timeout Verify your Serial/COM Port Power DOWN/UP your OpenBCI & USB Dongle Then retry Initialization" error when I try to connect (using the same serial port) live to the OpenBCI  board through the OpenBCI GUI. 

    Joe
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Joe or Johan, what happens when you follow Joel's instructions in his post today (March 25) and send the '?' to the OpenBCI through the serial port monitor. (Assuming the default firmware is loaded and 115200 baud serial.) Do you see the register dump? If that is not happening, it's possible some component on the main board, such as the ADS1299 itself is wedged and not responding.

    Your test with downloading a new sketch proves that the wireless link is working and both RFduinos. But if you see no response to the '?' this would also explain why the OPENBCI_GUI Processing program can't get anywhere.
  • johanpingjohanping
    Hi wjcroft, there is definitely no response to the ? sent via Arduino serial terminal when tried on both the desktop and laptop running Windows 7.0
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Can we have @NeuroJoe confirm that '?' on the Arduino serial terminal does nothing for him?

    Joel @biomurph , I wonder if it is possible they could have a bad firmware? With all the tests at this point we know that Joe was able to load a new sketch and have it blink the main board LED. So that confirms that a great deal is working (dongle, RFduinos, etc.). But the ADS1299 functionality seems dead as there is never a response to '?'. So... either their firmware is suspect or the ADS1299 is dead, or some other component that prevents ADS1299 SPI transfers.

  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    If the blue LED blinks like an UNO when the serial terminal is opened, then the radio connection is working.
    Verify that the baud rate is set correctly (115200 baud) and that there is no other character sent besides the '?' (No Line Ending)
    If that checks out and you don't see a response from the board, the only thing I can think of is that the firmware has been corrupted.

    Try re-uploading the OpenBCI_8bit_SD code located here

  • johanpingjohanping
    edited March 2015
    Re-uploaded OpenBCI_8bit_SD code and it works fine now!!!! Thank you so much! I think I must have somehow wiped the code from the board earlier when trying to make board do something with EOG input data

  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    So glad to hear johanping! 
    Interested to know what you did during your EOG testing
  • juldaujuldau France
    Hi OpenBCI community,
    first of all, congrats for the great work and amazing device!
    I had the same problem a few months back with my 8 bit board: impossible to connect although it had worked really fine previously for a long period of time.
    I re-uploaded the firmware as suggested here (although did not see this post at the time and worked on it for several days...) and it worked again.
    However, yesterday during a demo, same problem occurred again... After rebooting/checking everything several times, I think the firmware got corrupted again.
    Do you guys have an idea of what could be causing the corruption and how to prevent it to happen.  
    For your info, both times it happened, I had been transporting the OpenBCI by train for demos if one could see any correlation ?! Also, yesterday I mixed dry and wet electrodes, switching channels on/off several times and playing with gain.
    I'm not so familiar with embedded software but is it normal it can "easily" get corrupted and should I suspect a hardware problem with my board (memory, short circuit,...)?
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