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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on July 11, 2012 at 10:35am

With Alpha, have you tried reloading the firmware and erasing the eeprom (CLI setup/erase)?

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Permalink Reply by Dan G on July 11, 2012 at 12:51pm

Yeah it can't detect the version and says to check the cabling.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on July 11, 2012 at 12:53pm

Assuming you've also tried on another computer with another USB cable, and they're still not working, I'd contact customer support from the store you got them from and request a RMA.

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Permalink Reply by Dan G on July 12, 2012 at 12:51pm

Well here's the conclusion I'm coming to based on more tests I've done...

With Alpha, if I hook up the 3DRs and go to the Terminal, I get a response from the APM if I spam it with Setup Radio, Tests, or Show Settings clicks, but to me it seems that the baud rate might be slightly off. For instance:

Spamming Setup Radio:

?ou?usutup  (setup)
?exitMsetip-*|W?wymo?[t  (exit setup)
wetutk?h5sa?5n7
rc?sotu?itmxit
ww?WH77adio  (radio)
}vuq?uxZ5{e|it  (exit)

itMsetuztupMJradio-wh5|??5Vu[5wetoO??{tsgk?z}cW5)?w]O?exmtsutup  (setup radio exit setup)

Spamming Tests:
tesv*e|m?m?oz5|m{t  (test)
?exi?_oYm  (exit)
e?[5tew~O?ez
=~/?e?coMo?}}wo?uWG}?{75j?testk?-uS->??e}mw?/?extKr?  (test exit)

Spamming Show Settings
?/?extKr?m|=~omtM?e}7w75shows  (shows)
Wu?otsutup{??uw}WW=u  (setup)
{euun?}mu=?sutups?mxmt  (setup)
weux}[=?Yuwo?|5???
s?kwowk^CWo?|i_?exit-sutupsho?eyiu  (exit setup show)
se7n?exo7?exi|sewMe|mt  (exit)

So say the oscillator responsible for the internal clock of the APM is damaged, and instead of 57600 baud rate, it's 56000 or something, so every few bits will be off and we can see this in the ascii text.  So my thought is that for at least Alpha, maybe also Beta, there was some sort of surge or something that damaged the board such that the oscillator is off.

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Permalink Reply by Denis on July 11, 2012 at 2:35pm

One time my apm2 was bricked. It begin the initialization and then freeze. To solve this issues I do the following:

In arducopter code, function init_ardupilot (file sytem.pde), just after the Serial port initialization "Serial.begin(SERIAL0_BAUD, 128, 256);"
I add the following instruction
"run_cli();"
which force the start of the cli before all others initializations. I compile and sent it to the apm. Then connect with serial usb, erase the eeprom and does a reset with cli command.

After this I resent the correct code to the apm, reconfigure it and everything where working fine.

It would be cool, if in next version of "mission planner" there is a possibility to send a small program that clean everything and in particular the eeprom.

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