Axoloti Core Doesn't turn on anymore (Officially deceased)

#1

Hi,
my axoloti core board doesn't turn on when powered via USB or with power supply 9V 1A center positive. during the last session everything worked correctly, but it doesn't work now :frowning:

I followed the instructions for the flash recovery but in any case the software does not recognize the board.

someone can help me? The board is compromised forever?

Thanks a lot

#2

do you see any led activity when you power it up?? if there are no lights flashing at all that sounds like broken to me...

#3

I ran into this a few times when I had some things plugged in incorrectly/ wires touching that shouldn't be. Have you tried removing all ins and outs?

#4

just to be clear, on flash recovery...
you held down S1 whilst powering on the board, and kept it pressed down... do you see LEDS blinking? or what happens?
then once powered up, start axoloti, go to select device... do you see NO devices listed? or some device with DFU in the name.

(make sure you have nothing else connected to board, and the axoloti is connected directly to your computer)

also be good to get some other general info...
- any lights coming on?
- have you connected anything to the gpio pins?
- version of axoloti software/ operating system?
- what version is your board? when was it shipped?

as far as i know, the only (rare) board failure that has been seen is for the the v1.0 boards, and is described here
(it sounds like this is not sure issue - since in the above issue, users are able to still see the board, but you say you cannot... but I thought id raise it, as its the only failure I know of)

is your board a v1.0 , it printed on the board, and would have been from the initial crowdfunding batch or shipped before December 2015.

#5

No, any led activity, I hope it isn't broken

#6

Not yet, I remove only the last pots I've soldered, before soldering new pots I've tested everything and it was working fine!

#7

I followed carefully all the instructions about flashing, sadly without any good result (no led activities, no recongnisement by software).
I've mounted the last version of software and last version of board BUT i have some pots connected to gpio ports

#8

so this sounds like you created a solder bridge somewhere... have you connected two points together that should not be connected. carefully check all the point for solder bridges or use a multimeter if you have one..

#9

I'll try to do it all from the beginning, too hard to test everything

#10

if you can put up a high quality pic of the board that could help (both sides)

#11

Here the pics of the board after desolder all the pins in the gpio

after that I tried to connect to my laptop via usb port, as before no lights and no recognisement by the software, another thing, the board becomes hot after few seconds...I don't know if it's common or not.

Foto 18-08-17, 17 09 54.jpg2448x3264 2.17 MB
Foto 18-08-17, 17 10 12.jpg2448x3264 1.91 MB

#12

Could you identify which component is generating heat? Be careful not to burn your fingers...

#13

There's a heat diffusion, I identify U5, U4, U2 andd also the chip near IC1

#14

What do you think about it? It's probably dead?

#15

I recall doing a post-mortem analysis remotely on a board with a heating up U4/U5, and it appeared that those heating up was not a cause of failure but a consequence. After eliminating U4/U5 and applying power, it was found that the microcontroller (IC2) itself started to heat up instead. The event that caused the microcontroller to fail was impossible to identify, but the hypothesis was that a flying, exposed power supply wire carrying over 6V temporarily made contact with a GPIO pad.
So, yes it is probably dead...

#16

Thanks a lot Johannes :pray:t2: