Duet3 Expansion Board 3hc blocks during downgrade

dc42

@danielpetrea there was an issue with clock startup that affected both the bootloader and the main firmware on some expansion boards. It's dependent on VIN voltage and temperature, so a board can pass our testing, and even work for a while in a machine, before ceasing to start up reliably - for example of the temperature has changed. The symptom was that the power LEDs light up, but the red activity LED doesn't blink either continuously or intermittently to signal an error.

I made a series of changes to the startup code to fix this, the final one being in April 2021. But firmware 3.1.1 was released in May 2020 so it doesn't include these changes. I think it's likely that this explains why firmware 3.1.1 won't start up on that board. It's possible that if you leave the board powered up for an hour or two, it may eventually start up.

I strongly advise against running such old firmware. We fixed a number of bugs relating to movement commands sent over CAN to expansion boards in firmware version 3.3, and one more in 3.4. My advice is that you apply your customisations to firmware 3.4 or 3.4.1.

fcwilt

@dc42 said in Duet3 Expansion Board 3hc blocks during downgrade:

I made a series of changes to the startup code to fix this, the final one being in April 2021. But firmware 3.3.1 was released in May 2020 so it doesn't include these changes. I think it's likely that this explains why firmware 3.3.1 won't start up on that board. It's possible that if you leave the board powered up for an hour or two, it may eventually start up.

Did you mean 3.1.1 rather than 3.3.1?

Frederick

dc42

@fcwilt thanks, I did - now corrected.

DanielPetrea

@dc42 Hi dc42,
That's not the first duet3hc expansion board that i'm using, i've uploaded the firmware very well in many boards.
With the last version of board( V1.01) is not possible to upload this firmware.
Did you think that is a problem of this single board or the new version of board?
Thanks

dc42

@danielpetrea now that you come to mention it, I can see another problem. Early 3HC boards used 12MHz crystals, but later versions use 25MHz instead. The later bootloader and RRF versions detect the crystal frequency automatically. Firmware 3.1.1 is probably too old to include the frequency detection code.

DanielPetrea

@dc42 it's any store where can i buy a version with 3.1.1 uploaded or the previous version of board? Thanks