New Uno Ethernet blink program trouble

[wfanning]

Hi,

I just received my UNO Ethernet R3. I uploaded Blink from Examples/Basics and the LED sometimes stays lit for many seconds, sometime off for many seconds sometims seems to blink but pulses strong then fades out. This is the standard Blink program, should blink on and off with 1000ms timing. It does this powered by 9v wall wart or FTDI programming cable.

I have programmed quite a bit with a Nano so I am not a newbie.

I am using Arduino programming IDE v1.0.1 and the FTDI cable TTL-232R-3V3.

The Arduino website says I need to "Upgrade the Arduino Ethernet bootloader to the latest version". Is this possible on a freshly delivered board?

[wfanning]

Update -

The sketch Examples/Basics DigitalReadSerial seems to work just fine. I wonder if there isn't a problem with the LED on this board. Any one else with an UNO Ethernet R3 who can confirm or not this problem?

Thank you.

[adafruit_support_bill]

I've never heard of that symptom before. If you modify your 'DigitalReadSerial" loop like this, does the led follow the button state?

Code: Select all

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  // read the input pin:
  int buttonState = digitalRead(pushButton);
  digitalWrite(13, buttonState);
  // print out the state of the button:
  Serial.println(buttonState);
  delay(1);        // delay in between reads for stability
}

The Arduino website says I need to "Upgrade the Arduino Ethernet bootloader to the latest version". Is this possible on a freshly delivered board?

Can you post a link to that recommendation? We sell a lot of these, so unless there was a very recent change, you should have the latest.

[wfanning]

HI,

Thanks for your reply. Adding the line
digitalWrite(13, buttonState);
to the DigitalReadSerial sketch shows the same behavior for the LED, irregularly on, irregularly off, fading in and out when 3.3v is put to digital pin 2.

I have tried uploading code with the board specified as "Ethernet" and as "Uno". Which is correct for the "Uno Ethernet" Adafruit ID 418?

At the bottom of the page http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardEthernet there is this:

============ Quote ============================================
Setup

If you want to use a FTDI cable to download your sketches on the Arduino Ethernet, please refer to this guide: Upgrade the Arduino Ethernet bootloader to the latest version
============ End Quote ========================================

Thanks for your help.
Bill

[adafruit_support_bill]

The bootloader update article was from August of 2011. This change has been in production for quite a while, so there is no need to update a board purchased recently.

But the LED-13 behavior of your board definitely sounds abnormal. Contact support@adafruit.com with a link to this thread to arrange for a replacement.

[wfanning]

I have received the replacement board and have a couple of items to note. First, and embarrassingly, the LED on the Uno Ethernet is on pin 9, not 13, so the blink sketch will not run correctly until that change is made. And yes, running blink with digitalWrite to pin 9, the LED blinks as expected.

Second, the strange irregular LED behavior: fading, and turning on and off at irregular intervals, continues on both the old and replacement board. This happens when the blink sketch is set to digitalWrite to pin 13 and even when the BareMinimum sketch is loaded. This behavior is in both boards and increases when the board is handled but does occur without handling.

Third, there is no LED activity when uploading a sketch to the board. This may be normal but it is unexpected.

[adafruit_support_bill]

That is embarrassing. I haven't used an UNO Ethernet in a while and I forgot that they moved things around a bit.

Pins 10-13 are used to communicate with the ethernet module via SPI. And the Rx/Tx leds are connected to the W5100 Ethernet module instead of the Atmega hardware serial port.

Not sure what is going on with the pin led when you connect the blink to 13. The pin would default to input mode and I don't what would be pulling it low. I'll have to dig out my UNO Ethernet and see if it does the same thing.