Problems when Quiet Mode is enabled

Troubleshooting
1

FARMBOT INFO
Device ID: 7591
Version: v14.3.0
Model: Genesis v1.5
Firmware: v6.6.5 Farmduino (Genesis v1.5)

My Genesis 1.5 XL freezes with one of the motors ticking when Quiet Mode is enabled. I have reflashed my sd card with 14.3.0 and done a Reset Hardware Parameter but to no avail. Everything works fine when Quiet Mode is disabled.

I thought that the best way to explain would be to list what I did (in bold) and what the result was.

  • Flashed SD card with 14.3.0 and configure network connection (LAN in my case)

  • Flash firmware

  • Restart firmware

  • Reboot

  • Reset Hardware Parameter

    • (Z Motor starts ticking)

  • Flash firmware (Z Motor stops ticking briefly and starts ticking again)

  • Restart firmware (Z motor stops ticking and starts again)

  • Find Home

    • (Z motor stops ticking)
    • (No movement)
    • On graph – Z data goes through the roof
      image

  • Set Quiet Mode set to “No” on Z motor only (still “Yes” for X and Y)

    • Graph goes down
      image

  • Find Home

    • (Z motor ticking)
    • (Nothing moves)

  • Restart Farmbot

    • (Z motor starts ticking as soon as Farmduino receives power)

  • Quiet Mode to set to “No” on all three axis

  • Restart Farmbot

    • (Z motor starts ticking)

  • Find Home

    • Horrible noise as Z Motor goes all the way up and doesn’t want to stop
    • E-Stop – Unlock
    • Z motor not ticking
    • Re-do Find Home → same result

  • Set Use Encoders to Yes

  • Find Home

    • Farmbot works again

  • Set Quiet Mode to Yes

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Run watering sequence

    • OK

Next Day

  • Switch Fambot On

  • (Z Motor starts ticking)

  • Find Home

    • Nothing moves

  • Set Quiet Mode to No

  • Find Home

    • OK

  • Run watering sequence

    • FB stops after about 10min with message “Stall detected on X”

  • Set MAX RETRIES to 6 (instead of 3)

  • Set MOTOR CURRENT to 1200, 1200, 1200

  • Run watering sequence

    • OK

  • Set Quiet Mode to Yes

  • Find Home

    • (Y Motor starts ticking / nothing moves)

  • Set Quiet Mode to No

  • Find Home

    • Ok

So to conclude, the problem is not systematic but will invariably appear after a short while. I am not sure what to do next and any help would be really appreciated.

2

The FarmBot Dev team will need to investigate this . . the latest FBOS release ( 14.3.1 ) contains new firmware for Express models ( pertaining to TMC2130 stepper driver issues )

1 Like
3

Thanks @jsimmonds !

I have upgraded to 14.3.1 and, so far, it seems to have solved the problems. Fingers crossed!

4

Wow, Ok ! That 14.3.1 FBOS Release had no changes for Genesis models ( a.f.a.i.k. ) :confounded:
What is the Farmduino firmware version displayed now ?

1 Like
5

Actually, same as before (?!). Weird:

image

For the first time since Quiet Mode came out, it has just completed a fairly long watering sequence without any problem.

1 Like
6

Thanks for the detailed report @ClosedCircuit, and I am glad to hear your system is working now. We are looking into what may have caused the initial issue, which may be the same problem we identified with the FarmBot Express firmware yesterday.

Yesterday we found an issue where movements were not possible and the motors were clicking at about 1.5 Hz (note the clicking is only if ALWAYS POWER MOTORS is enabled, which is the sound of the motors activating and deactivating). The issue only seemed to be affecting FarmBot Express devices, and would only begin after hard power cycling (unplugging the FarmBot and then plugging it back in) with the buggy firmware (v6.6.5) flashed.

We were able to reproduce the issue internally with Express but not Genesis systems, and so we reverted the Express firmware back to v6.6.2 and released it with FBOS v14.3.1, which seems to have solved the issue for the affected Express bots.

It is strange that your device is now working after updating to v14.3.1 because as @jsimmonds pointed out, that release should not be any different for your device than v14.3.0.

It is also strange that you had similar sounding problems in the first place (motor clicking, no movements) with the v6.6.5 arduino firmware included with FBOS v14.3.0, because we are unable to reproduce the problem internally with that firmware version and our Genesis systems. This means there could have been something else at play in your system that presented itself similarly.

Were you by chance running a beta or alpha version of FBOS that had a firmware version greater than 6.6.5? Because of the funny nature of the bug requiring a hard power cycle to present itself (and go away), it seems plausible this is an explanation.

Moving forward, we are able to reproduce the clicking problem with Genesis systems using an experimental firmware (v6.6.9), and it seems to be resolved in v6.6.10.

The my.farm.bot update server currently has these versions of firmware on it:

  • stable - v6.6.5
  • beta - v6.6.10
  • alpha - v6.6.9 (has the clicking problem)

If you are willing, we would be interested to see if you also get the clicking problem after updating to v6.6.9 and hard power cycling. And also if the problem goes away (and everything else still works too) after updating to v6.6.10 and hard power cycling.

2 Likes
7

Many thanks for your reply @roryaronson

The problem started again this morning but your comments may explain why. My FarmBot is connected to a smart plug. There is a scheduled sequence that powers the FarmBot off after its daily watering sequence has been completed. 15 min later, the smart plug turns power off. The following day, the smart plug turns on again 15 min before the watering sequence is due to start. So, there is very much a daily hard power cycle that could explain why 6.6.5 is misbehaving.

I would be happy to test as per your last para but could you please let me know how to flash the alpha and beta versions of the firmware?

8
1 Like
9

Hi @roryaronson ,

Unfortunately, neither 6.6.9 nor 6.6.10 seem to do the trick.

Test Alpha 6.6.9

  • Update to 14.3.2-RC3 (Alpha) – 6.6.9

  • Flash Firmware

  • Restart Firmware

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Set Quiet Mode to Yes

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Shutdown

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch off]

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch on]

  • Find Home

    • PROBLEM – Nothing happens and Z motor ticking
    • Diagram shows movement despite the fact that nothing’s happening

  • E-STOP

  • UNLOCK

Test 6.6.10 (Beta)

  • Update to 14.3.2-RC4 (Beta)

  • Flash Firmware

  • Restart Firmware

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Set Quiet Mode to Yes

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Shutdown

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch off]

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch on]

  • Find Home

    • PROBLEM – Nothing happens and Z motor ticking

  • Restart Farmbot

  • (Motor still ticking)

  • Set Quiet Mode to No

    • Find Home button still greyed out

  • Restart Farmbot

  • Unlock

  • Find Home

    • Nothing happens

  • Find Home (again)

    • OK

  • Shutdown Farmbot

  • Unlock

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch off]

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch on]

  • Find Home

    • OK

  • Set Quiet Mode to Yes

  • Find Home

    • Ok

  • Shutdown

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch off]

  • [SMART PLUG: Switch on]

  • (Motor ticking)

  • Find Home

    • PROBLEM – Nothing happens, motor ticking

  • Set Quiet Mode to No

  • Find Home

    • Ok
10

Thank you for testing out the beta and alpha versions, and I’m sorry the efforts were not fruitful. We’re still scratching our heads as to whether this is a problem with the firmware, or your specific device. There could be a subtle hardware defect with your electronics board that is causing this bug with your device but no others.

Had you tried enabling quiet mode when it was first released about a month ago with FBOS v14.2.2? If not, could you try flashing your microSD card with FBOS v14.2.2, which includes firmware version 6.6.2. This is the firmware version that we reverted to to fix the hard power cycle induced clicking on Express devices.

If that does not work, I would be interested in shipping you a replacement electronics board and having you ship yours back to us. If it comes to that, we might also wait until our v1.6 boards are ready and get you a free upgrade package for your help in troubleshooting with us :slight_smile:

2 Likes
11

Hi @roryaronson,

Many thanks for all the work that goes into trying to understand what’s going on.

To answer your question, I did try 14.2.1 and every version thereafter. You can see in this thread (July 7, 2021 Software Update) some of the discussions that @RickCarlino and I had around this particular issue.

I am keen to progress this and would gladly accept your kind offer to swap boards. 1.6 would be great :wink: !!!

2 Likes
12

Okay, thanks for the info. Let’s stay in touch for when the v1.6 hardware drops! Stay tuned :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like
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