Expansion board and SyPy issues.

[alidaf]

I bought 4 SyPy and 4 expansion boards and the failure rate since getting them just over a month ago is now 50%.

The USB connector on one development board has dropped off.
Another development board and 2 SyPy just refuse to work. The SyPy no longer allow firmware to update and I cannot get a REPL command line.

What the hell is going on?

The connector falling off is a design issue as the only thing keeping them on the board is solder. There are no lugs that pass through the board to provide structural support. Looking at the solders in general shows many that are poor quality and possibly dry.

I don't even know where to start with the other issues. Are they bricked? Can they be rescued?

[robert-hh]

@alidaf Alternatively you can use ampy from Adafruit or rshell fro Dave Hylands (look of it on Guthub) to transfer files using USB.

[livius]

@alidaf
I use only Windows, and do not know what to use on Linux :(

[alidaf]

@livius I use Linux and normally an editor called nano. The problem is that I can't connect the SyPy to the network so I'd really like a way to push files over USB via the command line. The plugin is pretty bad but I don't know how else to manage the SyPy, especially for printing debug information to the console.

[livius]

@alidaf
personally i do not use Atom plugin, then can not help with it.
I like simple thing like ftp(Filezilla) and notepad++.

[alidaf]

Another thing I have noticed is that the Pymakr plugin doesn't reflect accurately whether the device is connected or not. If I disconnect, it doesn't update. When I reconnect, it switches to disconnected.
Whenever I press reconnect, it just says 'Connecting on /dev/ttyUSB0...'
I have to press a key to get a REPL prompt.
There are just to many things that are bad about the plugin that I haven't the patience to report them. I constantly get a red box popping up that says an issue has occurred but it is already known.

[livius]

@alidaf
Is you device visible as Wifi?
If yes you can simply replace files connecting to it by ftp

another steep can be safe boot - this cause skip execution of boot.py and main.py
https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/toolsandfeatures/bootmodes.html

[alidaf]

I don't have tools to measure current.

I've uploaded code that uses the LED but can't connect to them to kill the process and upload new code. I've tried jumpering GND and G23 but that doesn't work. Trying to update the firmware just times-out. Trying to just upload new code just has an endless 'Reading file status' on one. Pressing the button does nothing.

There isn't enough info on the Pycom site to explain how to do things beyond the getting started examples. There needs to be much better step by step procedures for:

Uploading new code when there is code already running and possibly in an infinite loop.
How to reformat the devices.
Updating firmware and how to troubleshoot each step.
Folder structure for uploading code. Just giving the layout isn't enough. What goes in each of the folders? How can boot.py and main.py be used effectively with variables accessible from boot.py to main.py?
I have noticed that 'Upload' now replaces 'Sync', but there is now also a 'Download' button. There needs to be better communication to users of these changes and what they do.

There should also be a hardware support section on the forum so that quality issues can be fed back. I don't know what the best thing to do regarding the USB connector failure is.

[livius]

@alidaf said in Expansion board and SyPy issues.:

I don't even know where to start with the other issues. Are they bricked? Can they be rescued?

The led is blinking? it is red or not respond at all?
Did you try to measure current?