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bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 4:26 am
by kazam
Hi,

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 and have several bladeRF devices. They always at least show up in dmesg. Now I get absolutely nothing.

Power LED is on at least. But that's all. Ideas?

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:03 pm
by bglod
And this is a sudden problem with all of your bladeRFs? This sounds very strange. Can you try another machine, or perhaps use the GNU Radio Live image? Do the devices show up in lsusb? Can bladeRF-cli -p detect them?

Take a look at the schematic and probe all the voltage rails when it's plugged in. Please report any anomalous readings.

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:36 am
by kazam
HI,

No it't just the one unit and it was ordered a few weeks back. It ran for a day or two and then stopped working.

lsusb doesn't pick it up. probe doesn't show it.

I'll check the rails!

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:50 am
by bglod
Okay, it's just the one -- that sounds better! Please do the probe and let us know what you find. We may have to take this to e-mail so we can get your order number and look into RMA options. We test these units at the factory and once again before shipping out, but infant/DOA failures sometimes can and do happen.

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:15 am
by kazam
Rails seems to be fine. I'll have someone send an email for RMA.

Thanks!

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:50 am
by bglod
In that case, I wonder if there's something wrong with the clock or clock buffer -- you say nothing new shows up in dmesg. One last thing you can try, is to force the FX3 into bootloader mode by shorting pins 1 and 2 of J64.

If the device shows up in dmesg or lsusb as

Code: Select all

04b4:00f3 Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Then your FX3 image may have been corrupted somehow. Proceed with flashing a new FX3 image (v2.2.0 is the latest on our website at this time) using the FX3 bootloader recovery instructions.

If it does not show up as a Cypress device with J64.1-2 shorted, then yeah there's probably something wrong with the hardware. Send us an e-mail and we'll get it cleared up!

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 2:21 am
by floor51
I also have this problem.

I have 2 bladeRF 1s and both were working, but now one is behaving in the way described in this thread, ie. LED is on but no USB connectivity.

I've tried forcing into bootloader mode as described. I've also tried the physical reset button.

I've been looking at JTAG cables but then I guess this won't help if the bootloader mode is the failsafe anyway?

I think I must have shorted something on the board. Is this something you can look at for me?

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:41 am
by bglod
Nothing shows up in dmesg? Did you probe all the voltage rails to make sure they are within their nominal range? When in bootloader mode, does a Cypress device show up at all in lsusb?

Please send us an e-mail if you're still having trouble.

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:18 am
by floor51
No nothing in dmesg. I've tried the jumper. Just the one green LED comes on and no USB.

It did work initially for a few days, so I thought it must be similar to the user that started this thread.

Can you describe precisely how to check the rails on the bladeRF? I've had a quick look at this page: https://hackaday.io/project/29189-how-to-bring-up-a-pcb

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:18 pm
by bglod
I just added this section in our Troubleshooting Page on our Wiki. Let me know if anything is unclear.

Re: bladeRF x40 appears dead

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:42 pm
by floor51
Many thanks. I'll test this on Thursday and report back