"fail fail fail" while flashing Ganglion firmware with Cyton dongle

edited March 2018 in Ganglion
I'm trying to update the firmware on my Ganglion board.  It was showing a BLE software version of 0.1.0, so it did not have the ability to update OTA.

I had a Cyton board USB FTDI adaptor, so I added some pins to its through hole.  I went through the steps on http://docs.openbci.com/Hardware/09-Ganglion_Programming_Tutorial, but it's not working.  The Arduino upload sketch fails with:

Sketch uses 51828 bytes (39%) of program storage space. Maximum is 131072 bytes.
Global variables use 5624 bytes of dynamic memory.


Device not responding.

fail.......fail.......fail.......
An error occurred while uploading the sketch

I have the FTDI programmer (Cyton USB) connected to the Ganglion as described and shown here:

Can someone help me understand how to get the firmware on this board?  The blue light doesn't blink when I turn it on now, too.

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Mentioning Joel @biomurph or AJ @pushtheworld...
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    Some things to check.
    Do you have the Dongle switch set to GPIO6?
    You are using the Dongle, so you may need to put a 0.1uF capacitor in series with the RESET pin.

    If you are still having trouble, swap the TX RX pins around and see if that works.
  • Yes, the dongle switch is set to GPIO6.
    Yes, there is a 0.1uF capacitor between the dongle's EXT_RST pin and the Ganglion's reset pin.
    When I swap the TX and RX pins, this is the new error message:
    Timeout reading from uart.

    fail.......fail.......fail.......
    An error occurred while uploading the sketch
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    @petewall
    Did you program the Dongle with the pass-thru firmware?

    I'm going to run through this process to see if I can replicate your problem.
  • biomurphbiomurph Brooklyn, NY
    I have just reflashed a Ganglion here in my lab which has the similar setup to your drawing.
    0.1uF cap in series between the reset pins. TX to TX, RX to RX. GND to GND.

    Are you applying power to the Ganglion?
    You can use the 3V3 pin from the Dongle and connect it to the DVDD pin on the Ganglion if needed.
  • The blue light doesn't blink when I turn it on now, too.
    You must have not uploaded the pass through code to the Dongle. be sure to do that, you must see that blinking blue light to know you're in the right dongle mode. Be sure to place the dongle switch back into the GPIO6 position and not the reset when you actually try to flash the ganglion with the new firmware!

    I can confirm this method works, i've done it too!

    @petewall we will get you up and running!
  • @pushtheworld Correct.  I didn't upload any custom code to the Cyton dongle.  I'm trying to use the steps from http://docs.openbci.com/Hardware/06-Cyton_Radios_Programming_Tutorial#cyton-radios-programming-tutorial-uploading-device-firmware-to-cyton-board.

    The step earlier on that page adds an RFDuino directory inside the Arduino.app didn't seem to add an RFDuino board to the boards list (maybe due to a newer version of the Arduino IDE?).  Are there customizations in https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_RFduino, or can I use the board def from http://rfduino.com/package_rfduino_index.json?
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    You want the passthrough code,


    Go to the Arduino IDE 1.5.8 and do File-->Examples-->OpenBCI_Radios-->RadioPassThru32bit. Make sure to select RFDuino from Tools -> Board -> RFDuino.
  • @wjcroft.  Yep, those are the steps I'm working through now.  The RFDuino board is not listed in the boards list and the steps on that page instructs to unzip a directory inside the Arduino directory itself.  This doesn't work on newer versions of the Arduino IDE.  Starting on IDE version 1.6.4, it uses a boards manager where you can add boards by adding URLs to a list in the preferences pane.  I sure hope I don't have to downgrade to a version that's 3.5 years old.

    Based on the bundled CHANGELOG file, it looks like https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_RFduino is based off of a release from https://github.com/RFduino/RFduino around 2.0.3.  There are still some differences in the codebases, so I'm not yet fully confident about using one or the other.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    The Cyton Radios Programming doc specifies, Arduino IDE Version 1.5.8 BETA. It's important you follow that suggestion.
  • That was it!  Thanks everyone.

    I followed the directions to put the special code onto the Cyton dongle and then flashing the Ganglion worked.

    For anyone else, here was the steps I took:

    Setting up the Cyton dongle:
    2. Extract "arduino-1.5.8-macosx.zip" to get "Arduino.app" (You may want to keep this separate from any other Arduino installs.  I kept this in the Downloads directory.
    3. Rename "~/Documents/Arduino" to "~/Documents/NewArduino"
    4. Launch the 1.5.8 Arduino.app to get Mac OS X to do its security checks.
    5. Quit Arduino
    6. Download the customized RFDuino board files: https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_RFduino/archive/master.zip
    7. Unzip that file and move the RFDuino directory from there into this directory: "Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/hardware/arduino"
    8. Download the latest OpenBCI_Radios release from here: https://github.com/OpenBCI/OpenBCI_Radios/releases
    9. Extract "OpenBCI_Radios-2.0.4.zip" to get "OpenBCI_Radios-2.0.4".
    10. Rename "OpenBCI_Radios-2.0.4" to "OpenBCI_Radios"
    11. Move "OpenBCI_Radios" to "~/Document/Arduino/libraries"
    12. Launch Arduino.app (the 1.5.8 BETA one, still)
    13. Plug in your Cyton dongle
    14. Slide the switch to Reset
    15. In Arduino, select the RFDuino board
    16. In Arduino, load Examples -> OpenBCI_Radios -> RadioPassThru32Bit
    17. Upload and enjoy the LED light show
    18. Quit Arduino

    At this point, you may want to rename "~/Documents/NewArduino" back to "~/Documents/NewArduino" (renaming or deleting the one that Arduino 1.5.8 created) so you have your old installed libraries again.

    These steps are not meant to replace those on the official guide, just for help with anyone who was in my boat.
  • After that, I was able to get the firmware uploaded to the Ganglion and its working now.

    Light Blue now shows:
    Manufacturer Name: openbci.com
    Model Number: Ganglion
    Hardware: 1.0.1
    Firmware: 1.1.0
    Software: 2.0.0
  • plutopluto mars
    edited September 2022

    Hi,
    I was going through this thread, and while uploading RadioPassThru32Bit code to the fabricated dongle, I am getting an error:

    The Switch on dongle is towards Reset position.

    @wjcroft, appreciate your help.

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    @pluto, you are probably posting on the wrong thread. This thread is about using a Cyton dongle to flash the Ganglion. There are many other threads that address the fail... issue.

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