Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack.

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vkapila
 
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Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack.

Post by vkapila »

Dear Customer Support:

I bought two Raspberry Pi starter Packs last week. The USB device for micro SD card is not working from either kit. The SD card adapter seems to work from one kit but the other one seems to work/not-work randomly. The Wi-Fi dongle connects and drops randomly.

Finally, the USB TTL Console cable works from one kit but not the other kit. I have tried doing an echo test but one of the cable seems to not work at all. Is it possible to get a replacement for the non-working USB TTL console cable? What about the two USB micro SD card readers?

Thanks
VK
P.S.: I bought these items using a co-worker's Adafruit account. If you email me I will send you order information.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

That's an amazingly high number of problems for two kits, so let's walk through the issues to confirm them:

I'm not quite clear what you mean when you say "the USB device for the micro SD card". Could you post a photo of the part you're talking about please?

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vkapila
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by vkapila »

The USB device for micro SD card is following from Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com/products/939
Here is some more detail. I sent the following by email to support.
VK

**********
Thanks, I did post in the forum. In my previous email I included the full order information.

1. For the USB TTL Console cable: I installed appropriate drivers.

For the cable that works (from kit 1)--I put it in a USB port of my laptop and the message about driver installation and com port comes up. I launch Putty with proper Serial Com settings (COM port, baud rate, etc.). A console screen opens. Now I put a jumper wire in cable headers for TX and RX (the white and green cables). When I type some thing on the keyboard, those characters now show up on the Console screen (the so called echo test). I also tried it with proper connection to Raspberry Pi and this cable worked.

For the cable that does not work (from kit 2)--I follow the same procedure as above but no echo is seen. I did this test because when I used this cable with Raspberry PI GPIO as explained in enclosed pdf (figure on page 11 of 15) I could not get anything on the Console window despite all tries.

2. For the 2 USB micro SD card readers--do not work at all, tried with multiple laptops. Nothing shows up on browser, device manager, etc.

3. One of the USB WiFi dongle is not being recognized by the GUI. I install the dongle on Raspberry Pi and I also tried it with a powered USB hub. May be two or three times out of 20+ tries the GUI will show some success but then continues to fail.

I will appreciate some help with these products so I can get going with my work ....
Thanks

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

What we're doing now is verification of the hardware issues. It doesn't do any good to replace hardware if the source of the problem is somewhere else.

In this case, the comparison test you did on the console cables (item 1) gives us enough information to replace the one that doesn't work.

There might be something we can do for the wifi dongle in item 3, but those are known to be a bit finicky about signals and power. Again, having one that works and one that doesn't on the same machines gives us good evidence to replace that device.

WRT the two USB card readers in item 2, have you tested them with micro-SD cards known to work on the same machines? We don't have a simple up/down comparison there yet, so I'd like to make sure it's actually the card readers and not something else in the operating environment.

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vkapila
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by vkapila »

The 2 USB micro SD card readers arrived in the kits that also contained one each of SD card adapter and micro SD card. I was able to get the micro SD cards work with the SD card adapter. That is, I installed the micro SD card in the SD card adapter and put that into the SD card slot of laptop. I flashed a distro on the SD card and then use the same adapter and micro SD card on the Raspberry Pi. Both the SD card adapters and micro SD cards finally had worked. But the same micro SD card installed on the USB SD card reader did not work. I tried the two USB SD card readers with their corresponding micro SD card from same kit as well as using card reader from kit and card from another kit. I tried the USB card readers on three different laptops (two same manufacturer and configuration, one different). Do I need to download any drivers for this? If the drivers are automatically downloaded, what is the name of driver? Perhaps I can dry to remove and reinstall the driver? When I put the USB SD card reader with micro SD card in laptops, it does not even show up as a newly installed USB device! Oh well.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Okay, that sequence of operations gives us another up/down test of the USB-SD adapters.. if the cards work in another carrier but not in the adapter, it looks like a fault in the adapter.

I've passed a message to the rest of the support and hardware team to see if anyone knows about driver issues, or anything else that might be causing problems for you. We'll definitely replace the parts that don't work, but I don't want to make you sit through a hardware replacement if there's a software/driver problem.

Let's get the replacement for the USB-Console cable and wifi adapter moving though: send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and they'll help you.

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vkapila
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by vkapila »

Fair enough, I sent an email to support for USB TTL console cable and wifi adapter. I will wait for further info on driver etc for the USB micro SD card reader.
Thanks
VK

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vkapila
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by vkapila »

Looks like there are other posts indicating problems with USB micro SD card reader on this forum. Just saw the one below.
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=44847
VK

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Sorry to be late following up.

I haven't heard any information about driver issues with the SD card adapters, so let's replace those along with the other pieces. I'll send a note to the folks at [email protected] asking them to expidite the handling, but please send them a message yourself so they have a direct channel of communication with you.

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vkapila
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by vkapila »

Thanks again.

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jamesfreeman
 
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Problems with Raspberry Pi components

Post by jamesfreeman »

Hi -

I'm having some problems with a serial console cable and a miniature WiFi adaptor.

The serial console cable has never worked - I've tried it with both Raspberry PI and Beaglebone. I've tried reloading the drivers for MacOS. When I issue the screen command against the cu device, the screen stays blank. Pressing enter doesn't help.

The miniature WiFi adaptor worked for about a day, and then stopped lighting up. It doesn't show up in the result of lsusb.
The same software and hub on the Pi works fine with the USB WiFi Module with antenna.

Could I arrange to exchange the parts?

Thanks,

Jim

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The mini wifi dongles are so self-contained there isn't much debugging we can do, so yeah, we'll get you a replacement there.

WRT the console cable, could you post a photo of how you have it connected? Usually the dead ones don't create a /dev/cu.* device.

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jamesfreeman
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by jamesfreeman »

Hi Mike -

Yes, here's the photo. Seems like a pretty straightforward setup...

Thanks,

Jim
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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Try disconnecting the mini-USB cable and connecting the console cable's red lead to the 5v GPIO pin. Also, for the sake of completeness, what command are you using to get the serial connection on your Mac?

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jamesfreeman
 
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Re: Problem with components in new Raspberry Pi Starter pack

Post by jamesfreeman »

Hi Mike -

I used the red lead on the rightmost pin, instead of the separate USB power feed. I do get power, but still nothing on the screen.

The exact command I'm using is:

screen /dev/cu.NoZAP-PL2303-00002014 115200

The device name is generated when I plug the cable into the MacBook.

Just a guess here: but is it possible that the insulation wasn't properly stripped off the transmit or receive lead before the female socket was crimped on? Or maybe they're not properly attached inside the plug?

Thanks much,

Jim

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