SBC connection issues

Michael P

Hey everybody,

I'm currently trying to setup a duet Mini 5+ with a rbp 3B+ in sbc mode. I'm running the latest bookworm 2024-09-19 32bit duet pi installation on a 8gb, 70MB/s sd card and a 2.4A usb psu.

I am able to connect to the rbp through putty or the dsf but after a minute or two it disconnects. I've tried two different sd cards and a few power supplies but they all had the same behavior (also the red power led never shuts off). Sometimes it reconnects after about 10minutes but I can reliably get it to reconnect after a power cycle. I tried hooking up a monitor to the rbp and I am able to see the boot screen with the duet logo but after that the screen goes dark. I think the monitor still receiving a signal because it doesn't give a message that the signal is lost until the rbp is powered down but the screen is just blank. I also tried installing a regular rbp os image on the sd card and that works as expected, which leads me to believe it is something to do with the configuration of my duet pi os and not a hardware issue; although it could be something to do with the connection between the duet board and the rbp.

I was wondering if anybody had ideas I could try or any thoughts on what could be causing my issues.

droftarts

@Michael-P Are you using the 'lite' version of DuetPi, or the full version (ie no 'lite' in the title)? If you use the 'lite' version, there is no user interface or desktop to load to. Try the full version.
How is the Duet powered? If you're powering it from the RPi via USB, it may be too much for the RPi or PSU. Power it separately.
Run through the checklist under "Could not connect to Duet: Timeout while waiting for transfer ready pin": https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/Machine_configuration/SBC_setup#h-5-troubleshooting

Ian

Michael P

@droftarts I am using the full version of DuetPi and I'm powering the duet and rbp separately. I double checked everything under the transfer pin error except for GPIO capabilities because I can't access the rbp terminal to test.

droftarts

@Michael-P How are you flashing the image to your RPi? Using the Raspberry Pi Imager, or something else? These versions of DuetPi have been tested extensively recently, on RPi 3, 4 and 5. I assume your RPi 3B+ has 1GB RAM? Try using the 'lite' 32-bit version, and try starting with the Duet disconnected from the RPi.

Ian

Michael P

@droftarts I have solved the issue,

Your suggestion to switch to the lite version helped as the Raspberry Pi was then able to display the terminal on the monitor however it did not fix the networking issues. The solution was to connection to the Raspberry Pi via IP address instead of "name.local". Not sure why that's more reliable but it hasn't dropped out once since I switched over.

Phaedrux

@Michael-P said in SBC connection issues:

connection to the Raspberry Pi via IP address

You should go into your router control panel and set the Pi to a reserved address so that it doesn't change.