Not working fully, no firmware

BrickPi
1

I recently got a Brickpi+ Starter kit (from Active-Robots.com) for my son.
The board has “v2.6” printed on it.

The voltage test seems to be fine and the LED-flashing script works.
However, I can’t get any of the motor or sensor scripts to work with the EV3 kit we have.
The firmware check script returns “Firmware: None”.

Is this normal? How do I get the BrickPi to work with the EV3 motors and sensors?

Thanks!

2

Hello Parkfield,

Sorry to hear about these frustrations. I have three quick questions for you:
1). Are you running a version of Raspbian for Robots on your Raspberry Pi? Which version?
2). Are you running these tests in Python?
3). How are you powering the Raspberry Pi and BrickPi?

Best,

John

3

I’m having the same problem. BrickPi Starter Bundle purchased via Amazon on January 8, 2016.

Results of firmware check:


Trying to communicate with firmware.
PASS: Serial line setup.

Setup sensors returns: -1
Checking Firmware Version of BrickPi.
Firmware version is: None
DOH!  Please update your firmware to run EV3 sensors!
You should be able to run NXT sensors, but not EV3 sensors.

LED test runs fine.

In answer the questions posed to Parkfield:

  1. my Operating System is Raspbian for Robots dated 2015.11.09
  2. I tried running the tests with python, eg: sudo python LEGO-Motor_Test.py and also through Scratch.
  3. I have tried using USB power and also battery power using the pack supplied in the starter bundle.
4

My answers are all the same as fmb’s.

Incidentally, if you try and run the python scripts through the python shell (i.e. double click on the script then F5) it comes up with an inconsistent indentation error. This may confuse some users.

5

Have you tried turning it off an on again?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

But have you seen and done this:

http://www.dexterindustries.com/howto/enable-or-disable-brickpi-communications/

It took me some days to find this and afterwards my brickpi worked.If you haven’t, try it and look if it helps.

Regards,

Michael

6

Hi Michael,

Thanks! I followed the link and disabling the IR receiver worked. I can now control the motors and access the sensors from both Python and via Scratch.

Note that the EV3 firmware script now reports a firmware version:


Trying to communicate with firmware.
PASS: Serial line setup.

Setup sensors returns: 0
Checking Firmware Version of BrickPi.
Firmware version is: 1023
DOH!  Please update your firmware to run EV3 sensors!
You should be able to run NXT sensors, but not EV3 sensors.

I only have NXT sensors so I’m unable to confirm if the warning about EV3 sensors is accurate.

7

FMB, can you post a picture of your Pi?