New uConsole Troubleshooting

Hey Guys

I got my uConsole in the mail a few days ago and was finally able to put it together this weekend. I followed the directions and put in 2 fully charges 18650 batteries, then grabbed the image from Clockwork’s Github repo, burned it to a micro sd card, and fired it up. After I press the power button there is a super-quick screen flash, and the power light stays on, but otherwise no response from the device.

This is the CM4 model with a new CM4 board.

How do I troubleshoot? I can swap the micro-sd card - and I’ve tried a different set of batteries. What else should I do?

R01 here but troubleshooting should be similar.
Try with another image or - which will be harder - hook up uart and check how bootlog looks like.
On the other hand you can go with virtually any breakout board and troubleshoot booting there, as cPI3.14 delivers only wifi chip which you won’t be using anyway and usb keyboard.

Check if Clockwork has gave you µSD card - in my case my random Goodram with exactly the same image as on github presented some strange errors while card that came with µC worked out of the box.

My first boot also was prolonged but as long as screen being backlit there’s good chance that device itself is working and only it needs time.

Last but not least- there’s µHDMI port - maybe go give it a try?

Ok, it sounds like it is booting up.
First boot can take a while before you see anything at all on the screen and then it will just show black.
If it doesn’t like your sdcard (brand/speed/whatever) it won’t boot.
If the imagine you are using doesn’t have the right drivers and stuff for the screen you will see nothing.
Can you plug it into an external monitor?
There is an HDMI out.
Otherwise using the uart like lis6502 suggest is the next step.
Hope you get it going!

I plugged it into hdmi (good idea guys) and the error was around booting from the CM4’s built in storage - I guess uConsole’s aren’t compatible with the CM4 onboard storage?

they are you just have to flash the cm4s emmc outside the uconsole. the cm4 can’t use the sd card slot if it has emmc.

Is there a way for me to flash it using the uconsole? I don’t have a dev board

I had a idea don’t know if it’ll work. flash the image to a usb boot the usb might have to reboot a few time it’ll help being on hdmi. it can take 3-5 mins to boot over usb. then you might be able to see the emmc and flash it while booted off the usb.
i’ve done it to flash a sd card when i didn’t have another sd reader.

Good idea, but it won’t boot off the usb (at least not off the drive I have).

well shoot, I know it will boot off usb because I was doing it for testing images. the only other options are get a io type board for the cm4 or get a cm4 lite.

I had the same issue when I first built my uConsole. Turns out there’s a tiny latch that you have to flip up before inserting the display’s ribbon cable and then flip down.

Well, if this eMMC isn’t detachable (and i am not much into RPi nowadays so i might be wrong) then you’re out of easy options.

Quick duck search revealed Full Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Setup / Imaging Guide where guy sideloads firmware onto RPi over USB (section Imaging Compute Module 4 eMMC)

Given that you’ll be plugged into Clockwork’s “carrier board” then Type C and USB on the edge should be direclty wired to compute module’s USB lines. According to schematics one usb line goes to usb hub chip GL850G while 2nd goes directly to J501 which i believe is type-c connector.

Glad you figured it out, eMMC and the sdcard don’t play nice together and as you’ve learned you have to flash the eMMC to get it working.

Just curious - once it boots from the eMMC, can I use the sdcard for storage?

Hard no. The CM4 is hard configured to use either the eMMC or the microSD. You simply can’t have them both.

But, if you say you want to use either one plus a USB disk, then that’s a yes.