Flight Software on v04

[Giaco25]

Hello,

I would like to know if it is possible to run the Flight Software on the PyCubed v04. I tried to run the Flight Software but it didn't work. So, I tried to update the firmware and the bootloader at the latest stable version (I had an old version), but now I can't control the board via Mu Editor. In particular I have the following error message:

I updated all .mpy files but it still doesn't work.
In conclusion, after the copy of the files of Flight Software inside the board, all codes that previously worked now they don't work (fortunately I made the backup as suggested).
Is it possible to solve these problems and to have a mainboard v04 with a working Flight Software?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Regards,

Giacomo

[maholli]

Hi @Giaco25. The beep-sat examples should run on the v04 boards - we'll just need to tweak your pycubed.py. I don't have have v04 boards, so we'll have to work together to troubleshoot any hurdles you may encounter.

First let's restore your board back to working condition.

Follow the directions on the Updating PyCubed page to update your board's firmware. Since you have a v04 board, make sure to select either v04 or v04 w/ MRAM depending on what flash chip you're using. Update the bootloader then the firmware (just to make sure).

Verify that you can see the board in Mu.

• If you can't see the board in Mu, let's take another step back and use the known-working v04 firmware from https://github.com/pycubed/firmware.

Let me know how that goes and then we can proceed with loading some software.

[maholli]

You're absolutely correct, I just wanted to make it somewhat easier on you.

Please unzip the attached v04 software I've updated and try it on your hardware. From the REPL, verify that main.py boots properly. Let me know if there are any errors that pop up as it's likely from me missing something.

mainboard-v04_2022-01-24a.zip
The zip folder is just for convenience to save you from downloading this new branch.

[Giaco25]

Ok, I tried with the zip file and the only error I see in Mu is the following:

main.py output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 8, in
File "/lib/pycubed.py", line 14, in
ImportError: no module named 'sdcardio'

[maholli]

Ah, right. sdcardio wouldn't be included in the v04 firmware b/c of how the the board is set up in the main CircuitPython repo.

As a temporary fix, unzip and copy the files to your lib folder, replacing pycubed.py with this new one.
sdcard_fix.zip

Then let me know how it goes once the remainder of pycubed.py can proceed.

Long term, I'll update the v04 board in CircuitPython to behave like v05 so you wont need to do this temporary fix.

[Giaco25]

Fantastic for this:

Long term, I'll update the v04 board in CircuitPython to behave like v05 so you wont need to do this temporary fix.

Now, the error is the following:

main.py output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 8, in
File "/lib/pycubed.py", line 14, in
ImportError: no module named 'pwmio'

[maholli]

Hmmm it appears I've already done this for the v04 board definition. Are you sure you used the latest UF2 from https://circuitpython.org/board/pycubed/?

It's already showing sdcardio as a built-in module:

EDIT: yeah based on your latest comment I'm guessing the firmware isn't on 7.1. When you enter the REPL, what circuitpython version does it list?

[Giaco25]

When I updated to the 7.1.1 I started to have problems, first of all the impossibility to communicate with the board via Mu. I can try to reload the firmware to the latest English (US) version. Previously I tried with the Italian version.

[maholli]

Ok following up. I receive the same error message when starting Mu as you, but if I click OK and then click the Serial button at the top of Mu, I'm still able to access the REPL and proceed as normal. I was also able to load my main.py from Mu and make changes.

Is this the case for you as well?

[Giaco25]

I can't connect from Mu in any way only with the latest version of the firmware, but I can connect from Putty and web terminal. I reloaded all files and libraries (including the main.py) and in this moment it seems that the main.py is running. From Putty or web terminal I see only these messages and the RGB led is showing any colors:

Auto-reload is on. Simply save files over USB to run them or enter REPL to disable.
main.py output:
[ERROR][SD Card] no SD card
[ERROR][IMU] [Errno 5] Input/output error
[ERROR][RADIO 1] Failed to find rfm9x with expected version -- check wiring

This because the board I'm using doesn't have mounted SD, IMU and Radio. I have other 2 boards with all components at the University and I can get them in the next days to do the tests.
Referring to the previous error message, do you think that the main.py is running correctly? (obviously excluding those errors)

[maholli]

Referring to the previous error message, do you think that the main.py is running correctly? (obviously excluding those errors)

Yep! it looks like you're booting up just fine. Congrats!

I can't connect from Mu in any way only with the latest version of the firmware

I just checked with some students and they have v04 boards running 7.1.1 and connectable through Mu. Since PuTTy can see your board, I'm willing to bet it's something to do with your Mu installation. Maybe even some leftover settings from a previous Mu version. FYI I've always disliked Mu's handling of USB devices since it's never worked quite right. What version of Mu do you have? It seems to work with 1.1.0b7. In the past we've had students need to uninstall Mu and then delete (on windows) ..\AppData\Local\python\mu and ..\AppData\Local\Programs\Mu Editor before doing a clean install from https://codewith.mu/en/download

For what it's worth: I personally use PuTTy (with sublime text as my text editor) during my primary development workflow. If I'm on someone else's machine, I use the browser REPL I described earlier.

[Giaco25]

Effectively, at this point the problem seems to be Mu. I will try to update at the latest version, now I have installed 1.1.0b3. For the moment I'll continue to use Putty or web terminal.

In the next days I'll make various tests with the complete boards (already tested and working) and then I will let you know if I have other problems.

Thank you so much for your time and for the great help that you gave me.

See you soon.

[maholli]

Happy to help! With the updated firmware/library you should now be able to work through the "beep-sat" examples.