#562

where did you get those square pushbutton caps and konb caps?

#563

Ok, I’m bringing my “Supercollider Fail” problem back to this thread since it was not a problem with the shield itself (as @tehn suspected).

Quick recap of the problem I’m having: I built a norns shield and flashed a 32 Gb SD card with the shield image linked at the top of the thread and load the SD card into my RPi 3B with the shield attached. On boot (and subsequent reboots), I get the Supercollider Fail error message and the norns hangs when I try to start Awake.

I have tried the following:

  1. Flash a second SD card (64 Gb) with a new copy of the norns shield image. The problem persists.

  2. Tried a different micro usb power cable. The problem persists.

  3. Bought a RPi 3B+ and swapped that in. Interestingly, nothing shows up on the screen and the green activity LED stays dark after an initial flurry of flashing for the first second.

  4. Using that same RPi 3B+, reflash the 64Gb SD card with stock Raspian Buster Lite image. Boots up, says it needs to “resize root filesystem rebooting in 5 seconds” (https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/58646/first-boot-expand-filesystem-does-not-take-effect) and then seems to run normally.

Kinda at a loss right now (and getting sleepy, so not thinking well). Any troubleshooting suggestions?

#564

Supercollider Fail is usually a case where SC or Jack are not getting started for some reason.

Possible reason - DAC not initializating. You can check dmesg output to see if there’s any errors reported.

You can try shutting down all the norns jack process and see if the dac is working properly and audio is functioning with info here

#565

Button caps: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/e-switch/TACBLK/EG1081-ND/101331

Knobs are “thin encoder” chroma caps: https://store.djtechtools.com/products/chroma-caps-knobs-and-faders

:+1:

#566

Thanks for the info!

1 Like
#567

Thanks okyeron, I’ll try the troubleshooting steps you list in that link when I get a chance.

I did run dmesg and got the same errors I saw with my first norns shield:

dmesg output

[ 0.427594] spi-bcm2835 3f204000.spi: could not get clk: -517
[ 0.873293] bcm2835-i2s 3f203000.i2s: could not get clk: -517
[ 0.873427] snd-rpi-monome soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed (-517)
[ 3.760550] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: CLM version = API: 12.2 Data: 7.11.15 Compiler: 1.24.2 ClmImport: 1.24.1 Creation: 2014-05-26 10:53:55 Inc Data: 9.10.39 Inc Compiler: 1.29.4 Inc ClmImport: 1.36.3 Creation: 2017-10-23 03:47:14
[ 5.174296] bcm2835-i2s 3f203000.i2s: I2S SYNC error!
[ 5.175756] bcm2835-i2s 3f203000.i2s: I2S SYNC error!
[ 94.429133] bcm2835-dma 3f007000.dma: DMA transfer could not be terminated
[ 94.430061] bcm2835-dma 3f007000.dma: DMA transfer could not be terminated

And this still doesn’t explain why I get nothing happening when I try the same SD card with my RPi 3B+. That’s the one that’s really throwing me off.

1 Like
#568

To me this points to a hardware failure of some sort (shield DAC, Pi, etc.), not software (SD card, system, etc)… but I could be wrong.

EDIT - FWIW - there could be some misconfiguration causing the DAC not to work, but that should not be the case with the standard shield disk image.

#569

Agreed. But I’ve tried two Pis (both of which seem to work fine standalone with Raspbian Buster Lite) and I’ve put together two shields (the first of which I sent back to @tehn who said it’s working just fine), and I’ve tried two different power sources.

#570

I have a somewhat weird issue with my shield build (SMD preassembled kit). I put the kit together, and basically everything works correctly except SW3 does not register any presses. I checked with a multimeter that the switch makes a connection and every solder joint seemed fine. But when poking around with a multimeter testing the resistors I noticed that R48 (the one between SW3 and +3V3) basically measures infinite resistance (my multimeter shows 0.L MOhm). The other resistors measure 10 kOhm fine.

I’m somewhat puzzled by this, because as far as I know resistors go to 0 Ohm if the burn out. Any suggestions for a fix or what might be causing this?

#571

Resistance can go to 0 if solder-bridged or changed by too much heat. Infinite resistance could be from a cold solder joint, crack, or other separation. Good work debugging it so far; should be an easy fix to replace the resistor if reflowing the solder joints doesn’t fix you right up.

2 Likes
#572

which power supplies are you using? do they deliver 2A?

the shield you send back to me worked (with my known-working card) first time. i’m using a USB power supply which we ship with the actual norns— 5.25v at 2A.

#573

Now that I think about it more, you might be right that the problem is with the power supplies. I’ll have to check the first one I used for the amp rating, but the second one I used was being powered from my laptop (which I’m now realizing was a lazy mistake on my part). I’ll test out a 2A supply tonight.

Still baffled by my Pi 3B+ not displaying anything though. Hopefully using a 2A supply changes that.

#574

I just tried both Raspberry Pis again with a 2.4 A power supply with the exact same results. dmesg still shows the same error message on the 3B (the one that actually reaches the norns screen so I can connect to wifi).

Any suggestions on how to proceed with debugging? I’m wondering if it’s somehow related to my screen (since it’s the only the only thing I have one of and I did not send back with my first shield).

1 Like
#575

you should be able to dmesg w/o screen attached?

after you set up wifi once it will reconnect automatically

and perhaps I need to return the one I tested as working. more the point: it’s probably time to take this back to email

#576

Thank you for the suggestions! I tried reflowing the joints a couple of times but that didn’t seem to do the trick, so I think I’ll be ordering a couple of 10 kohm SMD resistors to replace it.

#577

Hi, I’m trying to use hotspot made of my phone but it keeps saying “activating”. And I dont have any IP address. Is it because the phone is too weak? should I try connecting with router wifi?

On monome site I read that it needs wifi nub - does it really? I thought raspi has it

#579

shield does not require wifi nub. yes, i’d suggest first trying to connect via a router to confirm it’s working.

1 Like
#580

Thank you very much. Ok got the connection through cable :slight_smile:

When I dont do anything for a moment, the screen goes off - is this normal? like power saving mode?

#581

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but what’s the approved method for turning off (and on) the norns shield? I assume that just yanking the power is not a good idea to maintain file system integrity, so I’ve been selecting “sleep” in the menu instead, and then pulling power. But is there a way of returning from sleep without pulling the power lead and putting it back in?

Also, while I’m here, am I right in assuming there’s essentially no headphone out in the norns shield (although the standard line output works fine for this purpose), and that’s why the headphone volume control in the interface doesn’t do anything?

#582

I’ve also been wondering about the sleep option on the norns shield. So far I’ve just pulled the power after entering sleep.

I can answer the second point though! The headphone output control is indeed nonfunctional on the shield due to the lack of a separate headphone jack.