Got my new GoPiGo this week. i downloaded and created the new Raspian image and i also figured out how to get the VNC server working and can access my Pi/GoPiGo from my PC using the TightVNC Viewer. But from there i am running into problems:
i tried to run the DI Software update per the instructions, but at the end it comes back and tells me the Firmware version is 0.0 and the battery voltage is 0.0. The directions say if i don’t see Firmware 1.1 then it didn’t work correctly - but i have no idea what to look at. I don’t know if the rest of my problems stem from this.
I found the directory for the python basic_test_all and got the program up. I got the program running, but the commands have no impact on the GoPiGo. Nothing in the engines for the wheels at all.
When start up the GoPiGo from the mini-USB port, and with the monitor hooked in, i can see the Pi boot up normally, and when i get the screen up, i can remote connect to the GoPiGo. However, when i use the battery pack, the monitor will not work (which might be expected) however, i cannot remote in to the GoPiGo from my PC. The red LED light on the Pi comes on, but the wifi dongle never lights up so i don’t think the GoPiGo is booted up when i use battery power.
Looking forward to getting this thing working - but i am concerned i have a board that is DOA - i hope not, but can’t seem to get anything working. I know the Pi is working, but seems like i have having trouble with the GoPiGo red board.
Any thoughts on how to start to debug this would be appreciated. i guess i should state that the Pi is firmly connected and the green LED light on the GoPiGo board is on. I did note that the green light does not go off when i turn the power switch to off - which might be correct since i am not connected via the battery power pack right now.
Been playing around a little more tonight and found the install.sh file in the Setup directory. When i run this, I press enter to begin, it says checking for Internet connectivity, then comes back and says unable to Connect, try again !!! I have valideated i am connected to the internet by getting the IP address for the WiFi from ifconfig, and have brought up msn.com on Midori…
Might try again some tomorrow, but got so far and seem to have come to a stop on what works.
Check the voltage on the battery pack to make sure that it is more than 9V and also that the GoPiGo is properly connected to the Raspberry Pi. If you are able to connect to the Rasppberry Pi, run sudo i2cdetect -y 1 on the terminal and let us know what you get there.
What does this tell you, and do i still need to figure out how to check the voltage? The GoPiGo board and the Pi are connected well as far as i can tell.
Hey Mark,
Were you able to use the GoPiGo even once or are you facing problems since the beginning and did you get the above output with the batteries plugged in or with the USB cable powering everything.
No - I have not been able to get the GoPiGo working once yet.
What I got above was with USB Power. When I try to use battery power, I cannot see evidence that the GoPiGo “boots up”. I cannot remote in when on battery power, so not sure how to look at that.
I do not have anything that will help me see the voltage coming out of the battery pack. I have an 8 AA battery pack, with 8 new batteries in it. I do have a battery tester, and checked the poles on the output of battery pack, and it came back with the highest power validation for the test.
1). It sounds like you downloaded Raspbian from the Raspberry Pi page, is that correct? I just want to make sure you’re not using our Raspbian for Robots image.
2). If you’re not using our latest image, can you try using it with our image? It seems like the I2C might not be setup correctly on the latest Raspbian. That’s fine, I think I know how to troubleshoot that issue. If you’re using the latest of Raspbian, I think you have to run sudo raspi-config to turn on the I2C.
3). Whether you’re using our image or not, it sounds like you’re not connected to the internet. Even if you have an IP address, it might be assigned by a network you’re connected to that’s not on the internet. Let’s check with a command line:
What do you get back from that? If you’re connected, you should see a lengthy response. If not, it should tell you that. This is an issue that’s not related to the GoPiGo but we can try to walk you through that too.
Thanks for the response - and no, I am not an experienced user, so I appreciate the help.
I am not using my own Raspian image, I tried to follow the instructions on the web pages. Though I did download my own image from the website above. I do also have a Raspberry Pi image, that I probably will use some when not connected to the GoPiGo, but they are on 2 different cards, so I am assuming that is ok.
The ping to Google.com worked fine, and I can access web pages with Midori - so I am connected to the internet.
I will reload the image if you think that could be the problem, but I am pretty sure I have the right one and have been holding off on that since it took a long time (I got the correct check-digits and everything from the download).
Everything seems to work ok when I am connected to USB power, and I read somewhere on your website that the GoPiGo would not move under USB power, it had to be on battery power. But again, when I try to boot up just on battery power I can’t seem to make the connection.
I will play around with it more on Saturday, but if you should have any thoughts, they would be appreciated.
I will reload the image if you think that could be the problem, but I am pretty sure I have the right one and have been holding off on that since it took a long time (I got the correct check-digits and everything from the download).
If it works, I don’t think it will make much difference.
It sounds like you really do have a web connection; that’s great news. If you can see google on Midori, you do have a connection. I was concerned you might be connecting over VNC over your home network, but still not able to see outside. That doesn’t seem to be the problem.
For now, while trying to get everything up and running, I recommend you stay on USB power. So that’s great.
You’re not able to successfully run sudo apt-get update though still? Does that throw some sort of error?
Sorry Mark, I think I’m still missing something in how this is setup!
One more post this evening - and here is what i don’t understand that might help me with debugging.
I have the Pi connected to the GoPiGo, power up with the USB, everything comes up and I can get to the home screen. I then use TightVNC user and can remote into the Pi/GoPiGo. so, that tells me that the basic configuration is bootable, and that i can remote in when the Pi/GoPiGo boots up.
I then unplug the power, the monitor, the extra USB tree i have (leaving the WiFi dongle plugged into the Pi), and power up using the battery pack. I can see the green light come on with the GoPiGo and the red light on the Pi. However, after giving it ample time to boot up, i cannot remote in using the TightVNC viewer - says “a connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time”.
I have also tried to boot up from battery with the monitor plugged in, but that did not work either. Till now i just assumed that was disconnected when hooked up to battery, but now i am not so sure.
So, what am i missing? Why can i connect via TightVNC Viewer when connected to USB power, but not battery power. I guess i am missing something basic, but can’t figure out what it is.
Sorry - didn’t see your last post before doing my last one…
I am 99% sure those are the instructions i followed to set up my card for the GoPiGo. I don’t know, i might order a card from Dexter just to eliminate that as one of the potential problems…
I just reran the update, and it ran fine.
I ran the upgrade, 21 gets, some unpacking and replacing files, some Setting Ups and it seems to run fine.
I ran the DI software update, it runs for a while, asks me if motor disconnected from wheels, then finishes with this:
GoPiGo found
Firmware Version 0.0
Battery Voltage 0.0
Since i am not getting Firwmare Version 1.1 - i think i still have a problem here …
1. I have the Pi connected to the GoPiGo, power up with the USB, everything comes up and I can get to the home screen. I then use TightVNC user and can remote into the Pi/GoPiGo. so, that tells me that the basic configuration is bootable, and that i can remote in when the Pi/GoPiGo boots up.
Good! This means we’re booting up properly. That doesn’t seem to be the problem then. Excellent, the SD Card seems to be installed properly. And you’re using the Raspbian for Robots image, so everything should be installed properly. So everything should be fine at this point.
At this point, you’re not using your ethernet cable, right? You’re connected over the wifi network?
2. I then unplug the power, the monitor, the extra USB tree i have (leaving the WiFi dongle plugged into the Pi), and power up using the battery pack. I can see the green light come on with the GoPiGo and the red light on the Pi. However, after giving it ample time to boot up, i cannot remote in using the TightVNC viewer – says “a connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time”.
So the next step is to see if you’re getting onto the wifi network. If there’s no response from the network, the Pi is not connected to the wifi network. It could be a problem at bootup, but it sounds like that’s going ok from all indications from the leds on the pi.
3. I have also tried to boot up from battery with the monitor plugged in, but that did not work either. Till now i just assumed that was disconnected when hooked up to battery, but now i am not so sure.
Just to make sure, are you plugging the monitor in, and then booting from the Pi? When I boot headless (with no monitor plugged in) and then plug in a monitor after booting up, I never see anything. I think the Pi checks for a monitor on startup, and then if it doesn’t see anything, it powers the HDMI and video output down. But if you boot with batteries, and a monitor plugged in, it should show some action on the monitor as it starts up and should bootup with the monitor eventually ending up showing the desktop.
Once we solve the monitor question, which is a little strange, let’s make sure the Pi is getting on the network on bootup. Which should address issues 1 and 2 hopefully.
This is a wild shot but how confidant are you that the batteries are fresh? Is it possible to try a new set of batteries?
Yes - connected via the WiFi - actually, I am not using an Ethernet cable at all (so far) for the connections.
for 2-3… Makes sense on the Monitor, I didn’t think about the bootup process checking for the monitor. So - booted up the Pi connected to the GoPiGo using the USB power, made sure monitor, keyboard, and wifi worked. Then left everything else connected, pulled USB Power, then plugged in the battery power. Green light on GoPiGo and red light on Pi, but nothing on the monitor.
I thought the batteries were fresh, but I don’t have some more fresh AAs in the house. I will get out over lunch today and pick some up and let you know.
I am really glad to hear this should be working the way you describe. That makes sense to me, I just guess I have to figure out either what I am doing wrong, or what is wrong with my GoPiGo …
Ok - 8 brand new AA batteries. Plugged the battery power in, and nothing. Took out the card and put it back in, nothing.
Took off the batter power, plugged back in the USB power, and it shows on the monitor and boots right back up normally, including access to WIFI.
OK - so what next? the battery pack can only plug into the GoPiGo 1 way, so I don’t think that is the problem. And I get the green and red lights when I plug in with the battery pack - but something is definitely not happening correctly when I plug in with battery power.
Can you confirm for me that the commands to work the GoPiGo will not work when on USB power? Those commands do not work for me when on USB power. I think I saw somewhere they will only work when on battery power, but wonder if that is a potential debug point.
Could I be sent a new battery pack to see if that is the problem?
Hey Mark,
Can you again post the output of the sudo i2cdetect -y 1command with the 8 batteries and also post some pictures of your setup, how you are mounting the GoPiGo on the Raspberry Pi and some zoomed in pictures of the top and bottom side of the GoPiGo board.
I cannot run the command when on battery power, the monitor still will not come on when on battery power. However, here are some of the images you requested:
There is a top view, that shows the Red/Black wires from the battery (though the batteries are not plugged in now). This shows the green light is on, shows the monitor plugged into HDMI, and the USB Power. On the left you can see part of the WiFi dongle that is plugged in.
There is a side view, that shows how the Pi and GoPiGo are connected
There is a bottom view, that shows the red light on the Pi, and that the WiFi dongle is plugged in (and working). The top USB plug is a multiplug USB that I use for the keyboard, mouse, power, etc.
Thanks, I have done that, and I would appreciate it. I will be glad to send back in whatever we find works or doesn’t work, but I think this will be a positive step in the debugging process.