Not able to flash using debug board

Gaurav Borade · 24 Aug 2021, 14:27

Hello,

I am trying to flash the VOXL board using a VOXL USB Expansion Board with Fastboot and Emergency Boot (https://www.modalai.com/products/voxl-usb-expansion-board-with-debug-fastboot-and-emergency-boot?_pos=1&_sid=a6f76168b&_ss=r)

I am following a process mentioned in link https://docs.modalai.com/unbrick-voxl/

I am not able to get the fastboot device after the command "sudo fastboot devices"

Also, the Emergency Boot switch is not present on my board, is that causing for not detecting? or am I doing something wrong.

Please help

modaltb · 26 Aug 2021, 15:34

Hi @Gaurav-Borade ,

Not the "emergency boot" switch is for a production tool only, not used in the field.

We've had some folks recently where changing PCs has "resolved" the issue, what host OS is on your PC?

To double check, are you treating the 'fastboot' switch like a momentary button? The idea is that we boot up with the fastboot switch on but then turn the switch off....

In many cases leaving it 'on' is OK, but there's times when that itself causes issues.

Gaurav Borade · 27 Aug 2021, 09:28

Hi @modaltb , Thank you for the reply.

Thank you for the clarification on the emergency boot switch.

I have Windows 10 OS on my PC. Thank you for the advice, Will try with another PC.

Yes, I am following the same process mentioned on https://docs.modalai.com/unbrick-voxl/ (Force VOXL into fastboot)

I will retry this again. Also, for reference do you have any video for these unbricking steps?

modaltb · 27 Aug 2021, 12:37

@Gaurav-Borade , we have one in the works that should be ready shortly, I'll send a link once we get it posted!

jonathan · 14 Sept 2021, 21:25

Any update on this? I've tried the same process as @Gaurav-Borade, including the instructions here:

https://docs.modalai.com/usb-expander-and-debug-user-guide/

and I also see nothing listed under sudo fastboot devices.

Using the usb-expander-and-debug-user-guide I'm able to start a screen to /dev/ttyUSB0, but I can't get adb shell to work after the screen is started.

I'm on Ubuntu Linux 18.04, I'll switch to another Ubuntu 18.04 machine and re-run the debricking procedure to see if anything changes.

Chad Sweet · 14 Sept 2021, 21:35

If it was working before, and you can confidently get other boards into fastboot, it is likely the PCB has been damaged.

Our RMA process can be found here: https://modalai.com/rma

For reference, our safe handling instructions are found here: https://modalai.com/handling

james.wadsworth · 15 Sept 2021, 15:36

I am having the exact same problem but, running Ubuntu 18.04. My usb expansion board has EMERG boot.

Gaurav Borade · 16 Sept 2021, 09:37

Hi Team, if anyone have the video link, please share so we can try to unbrick it.

modaltb · 16 Sept 2021, 11:58

@Gaurav-Borade not sure why it didn't make it to youtube yet, but here's a link for now: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lPK5ypVNkRDaCLJSWZa_J7Cx84tZ2Q_G/view?usp=sharing

Gaurav Borade · 17 Sept 2021, 13:41

@modaltb Thank you for this

Gaurav Borade · 21 Sept 2021, 12:19

Hi, @modaltb I tried with it, but still have not succeeded

Two things I want to confirm

Am I using the right system image? I am using VOXL Platform Release 3-3-0 0.4.6 b downloaded from https://developer.modalai.com/asset
The cable, in the video I can see the cable like below
But I am using the cable,

Is this cable will work? or do I need the same cable shown in the video? please let me know if am doing something wrong here.

modaltb · 21 Sept 2021, 17:45

Hi @Gaurav-Borade ,

You are correct, the USB cable you have is fine and the image is also OK.

Question: are you using an Ubuntu VM on another host machine? This is something I'm not positive about, should be OK but just not something we've tested too much.

Gaurav Borade · 24 Sept 2021, 12:56

@modaltb Thank you for the confirmation on the USB cable.
Yes, I am using Ubuntu Virtual Box. The board was communicating fine with the Virtual Box previously (Before bricked) so unbricking on that only. I will try it on another machine as well.

Jae Park · 9 Feb 2022, 02:37

@tom Hi, I'm the op of this post (link) but thought I would ask my question here since it seems to belong here now.

I am following the Unbricking VOXL instruction. More specifically, here's what I'm doing.

Before anything is plugged in, I left the FASTBOOT switch on and the Debug board is already attached.
Plug in the (1) cable for power
Plug in cable (3) -- just a micro-usb
Wait 5 sec, turn off the FASTBOOT switch.
sudo fastboot devices
And this returns nothing. I've also tried adding cable (2) right after I plug in power which didn't work (I've tried many things..)
Please advise if I'm doing anything wrong. Thank you!

Jae

tom · 9 Feb 2022, 05:13

@Jae-Park if you do a watch fastboot devices do you ever see it come up? Another thing to check, what is your output of lsusb after about 30 seconds of having the Voxl-flight powered up and plugged in to your pc?

Also cable “2” is unrelated to this process

Jae Park · 11 Feb 2022, 03:18

Here is the output from lsusb. (once before attaching the power&micro-usb and again but 30 seconds after attaching them)
Also, I retried it again, following the exact steps I had described above, while watching on watch -n 1 fastboot devices. And, nothing had showed up.

tom · 11 Feb 2022, 17:38

@Jae-Park Can you do the same lsusb test without the debug board attached?

Jae Park · 11 Feb 2022, 17:57

@tom

This is after attaching cable (1) and (3), in the order, and running lsusb (waited some time before running the command).

tom · 14 Feb 2022, 17:36

@Jae-Park It appears to me as though the VOXL portion of your VOXL-Flight is in a "bricked" state that is not fixable without sending it in for inspection. Refer to this RMA page for more info: https://modalai.com/rma

Jae Park · 16 Feb 2022, 19:09

This post is deleted!