Help with Controller Issues

[koast]

While troubleshooting my secondary power bar that I just built, I've run into a progression of issues that all seem to be related to my controller.  I'm hoping someone will have ideas on where to go next.  I'm going to start with the most recent issue as I don't think I can resolve the others without fixing it first.  Also, I doubt all the issues all related but not knowing which ones are, I will list them all to provide the full picture.  

1- As of now, I'm not able to upload sketches to the controller.  I get a "No device found on COM3" error.  However, I am able to open the Serial Monitor over this same COM port and the laptop recognizes when I connect it, so the port is at least alive.  I have tried two different cables that both worked fine in the past and it acts the same with both.

2- When I monitor the Serial connection, sometimes the SD card is initialized and index.htm is found, but others times it is not.  (when it's not found I can usually get it back by rebooting the controller a few times).  

3- The display is now often hanging at the bootup screen (with the photo of the tank).  Rebooting the display will fix this eventually, though it may take a few reboots.  I have not noticed any other issues with the Display, it accepts sketches fine and the Serial Monitor always checks out fine.  Note that the controller issues listed under 1 and 2 above started while trying to troubleshoot this issue.  I found at least one other thread with a similar issue, but the troubleshooting steps there required uploading the test sketches to the controller which I'm not able to do at the moment.

4-This all started while trying to troubleshoot my power bars.  I just built my secondary power bar and while the relay board lights would go on or off when manually pressed on the display, I could not hear the relays switching and their was no power on any of the outlets whether it should be on or off (no power could easily be a wiring issue on my part).  So while trying to measure control line voltages on my main power bar which had previously been working fine, I noticed some of these outlets were now acting similar.  I could see the light turn off/dim on the relay board when I manually turned it off from the display, but I could not hear the relay click nor did the power turn off.  So for the main power bar they were staying on and it was only some of the outlets that were having issues.

So in summary, I can still sometimes get the system into a working state except the issues in #4, unless I have to reboot when #2 and #3 can come up.  But I don't know how to troubleshoot #2-4 because of the issues with #1.  

Hopefully someone will know where to look next.  Thanks.

[Rob F]

Hi Josh, lets see if we can figure this out.

1-  When you open the serial window on the controller does it say it found the SD card? The baud rate in the bottom right corner should be 115200. Are you plugged into the programming port on the Arduino? If its plugged in the other port the computer would recognize it but not program. If everything is correct what happens if you plug into the "Native" USB port on the Arduino, change the board type to "Native" and try uploading?

2-  The SD card connects using digital pin 4 (SDCS on the w5100 shield). Because its intermittent it sounds like a bad connection, can you pull the w5100 off and bend the tip of that SDCS pin and see what happens. Also try squeezing the SD cage so the card is pressed down better. Maybe try swapping the display card with it. You don't need to change any files, it won't find the index.htm file but it should initialize, if it always does then swap the files on the cards.

3-  This is related to issue 2. If the controller doesn't initialize the SD card it won't move on and the display would freeze on the splash page. When you reset the display it sends a signal to the controller which restarts it, eventually the controller sees the SD card after restarting and that's why the display eventually moves on. So nothing to do for this issue, when #2 is solved this will be as well.

4-  You'll have to check voltages to see what's happening. Unplug the power bar from the controller and on the controller board use a volt meter, put the ground on any ground and push the probe into the 8pin connectors that go to the VGA sockets. Check each pin, you should have 3.3v when off and 0v when on. So turn all outlets on manually and check each pin to see the voltage, then turn off all outlets and check again.

[koast]

Hi Josh, lets see if we can figure this out.

1-  When you open the serial window on the controller does it say it found the SD card? The baud rate in the bottom right corner should be 115200. Are you plugged into the programming port on the Arduino? If its plugged in the other port the computer would recognize it but not program. If everything is correct what happens if you plug into the "Native" USB port on the Arduino, change the board type to "Native" and try uploading?

2-  The SD card connects using digital pin 4 (SDCS on the w5100 shield). Because its intermittent it sounds like a bad connection, can you pull the w5100 off and bend the tip of that SDCS pin and see what happens. Also try squeezing the SD cage so the card is pressed down better. Maybe try swapping the display card with it. You don't need to change any files, it won't find the index.htm file but it should initialize, if it always does then swap the files on the cards.

3-  This is related to issue 2. If the controller doesn't initialize the SD card it won't move on and the display would freeze on the splash page. When you reset the display it sends a signal to the controller which restarts it, eventually the controller sees the SD card after restarting and that's why the display eventually moves on. So nothing to do for this issue, when #2 is solved this will be as well.

4-  You'll have to check voltages to see what's happening. Unplug the power bar from the controller and on the controller board use a volt meter, put the ground on any ground and push the probe into the 8pin connectors that go to the VGA sockets. Check each pin, you should have 3.3v when off and 0v when on. So turn all outlets on manually and check each pin to see the voltage, then turn off all outlets and check again.

Hey Rob, thanks for the fast reply.  Unfortunately I had a bunch of stuff come up that didn't allow me to go through this until recently.  But I've now been able to make it through your suggestions and here's where I'm at:

The first thing I did was swap SD cards as that was the most straightforward.  This appeared to help so I transferred all files between the two and it still seemed to be working through a handful of reboots.  After those first few successful reboots, however, I was back to the same situation as before.  I next tried syncing the controller once I had it in a working state as this was also simple and had fixed a friend's issue.  This also seemed to clear it up through a few reboots, but ended up the same.

And then shortly after that I was not able to get it into a working state no matter how many times I reset the controller or display, or swapped SD cards.  I've since squeezed the SD cage and bent the tip of the SDCS pin as you suggested, but it still hasn't improved.  To answer some of your other questions from before:

1- When I wrote the last post, in the serial window it sometimes said the SD card was found and other times not.  Now I always get "Can't access SD card. Do not reformat.  No card, wrong chip select pin, or SPI problems? SD errorCode: 0X1, 0X0".  Swapping SD cards does not help, though the cards both work in the display.  I know it's plugged into the programming port as it is the only one brought out on my box and the only one I've used.  I believe I would have to pull everything out of the controller to get to the Native port.  I've also confirmed baud rate is 115200.  

Please let me know if you have any other thoughts.

Thanks again,
Josh

[Rob F]

Hi Josh, no problem and sorry you're still having issues. It sounds like all the problems are related to the SD card. Is the SD card always working on the display but intermittent on the controller? The display will hang on splash screen if the controller doesn't see SD card. Since you're getting data in the serial monitor I assume you can program now? I've had a couple w5100 ethernet shields have the same issue where the card can't be read, now it gives that other error it must have quit completely. Do you have another w5100 to try? I can send you one but it'll take about a week to arrive.

[koast]

Hi Josh, no problem and sorry you're still having issues. It sounds like all the problems are related to the SD card. Is the SD card always working on the display but intermittent on the controller? The display will hang on splash screen if the controller doesn't see SD card. Since you're getting data in the serial monitor I assume you can program now? I've had a couple w5100 ethernet shields have the same issue where the card can't be read, now it gives that other error it must have quit completely. Do you have another w5100 to try? I can send you one but it'll take about a week to arrive.

Both SD cards always initialize in the display, but the controller won't initialize with either of them.  It had previously been intermittent with the controller, but I can't get it to initialize at all even after multiple reboots.  However, I am able to program on the controller.  Is there a test sketch that can help diagnose this?

My friend that lives nearby said he can lend me his w5100 to drop in and try.  Hopefully I can get that today.

[koast]

Hi Josh, no problem and sorry you're still having issues. It sounds like all the problems are related to the SD card. Is the SD card always working on the display but intermittent on the controller? The display will hang on splash screen if the controller doesn't see SD card. Since you're getting data in the serial monitor I assume you can program now? I've had a couple w5100 ethernet shields have the same issue where the card can't be read, now it gives that other error it must have quit completely. Do you have another w5100 to try? I can send you one but it'll take about a week to arrive.

Both SD cards always initialize in the display, but the controller won't initialize with either of them.  It had previously been intermittent with the controller, but I can't get it to initialize at all even after multiple reboots.  However, I am able to program on the controller.  Is there a test sketch that can help diagnose this?

My friend that lives nearby said he can lend me his w5100 to drop in and try.  Hopefully I can get that today.

Rob, I borrowed the w5100 shield and installed it, but it didn't help.  I tried both his SD card and mine and no change with either.

[Rob F]

Darn, it has to be difficult. I don't know how much troubleshooting you want to do as it'll have to be disassembled, I know you got plug and play so you didn't have to. If you can, remove the Due and w5100, then plug the w5100 directly into the Due and see if it finds the SD card. If you aren't up to messing around you can certainly send it to me and I'll get it working one way or another.

[koast]

Darn, it has to be difficult. I don't know how much troubleshooting you want to do as it'll have to be disassembled, I know you got plug and play so you didn't have to. If you can, remove the Due and w5100, then plug the w5100 directly into the Due and see if it finds the SD card. If you aren't up to messing around you can certainly send it to me and I'll get it working one way or another.

Not knowing the extent of what will be required at this point, I think I will send it to you.  Let me know where I need to send it.

[Rob F]

Sounds good and sorry for the trouble, I sent you a PM with the address.