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APM 2.5 slow blinking red LED, no contact with MP. Reprogram 32U2 OK.

Posted by Markus B on August 6, 2013 at 11:16am

I got this second APM from a forum member here in Sweden. He got it DOA.

I bought his NEO-6M and got the bad APM in the deal.

I thought I might give it a go, so he was kind to send it to me when I asked.

When I power up the board, LEDs A,B and C quickly flashes one time, very fast so its hard to see..

LEDs of for one second.

Then A and C flashes very rapidly for maybe 1 second. After that both slow down and the alternating flash between A and C LED continues for about 50 cycles, then only the red LED flashes at about 2Hz. All other LEDs are of, except the green power LED.

Does this give any clues to whats going on with the board?

I tried reprogramming the 32U2 using FLIP 3.4.7 and it says all is good, erase, blank chk, program, verify.

In MP I can connect to it in terminal but nothing happens. Terminal says "port opened", maybe thats not the same as being connected?

Every time I connect to the board the A,B and C LEDs restarts the flashing procedure, does it mean 2650 is being reset at that time?

TX on board never lights up, but RX flashes one time if I push "show settings" in MP.

I can get TX LED to flash rapidly by jumping JP2 and push the reset button on the board, not the SPI reset.

If I SPI reset 32U2 on the board by shorting the pads my computer instantly recognice that.

This world of MCUs makes it hard for an analog guy to fault find.. 

Oh, my other working APM works fine on this computer with the same USB-port and cable..

Unfortunatly I dont have the working board here, its a looong way from home right now.

All help and input on this is appreciated!

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Replies

  • captaingeek October 10, 2013 at 9:53am

    I have the same problem on a APM2.5 with very light use, no abuse. Just happened 1 day. It was running fine, no changes we're made as far as hardware or software. Powered up left it for a few minutes to get GPS lock the heard the ESC's reset and it was dead.

  • Markus B August 7, 2013 at 4:09am
    What could be the fault? Is the 2560 dead? Is it the 2560 software that drives LED A, B and C?
    I tried connecting the gps later yesterday and then the blue led flashes. When it lock on sats the LED on the gps is flashing but no different led activity on the apm.
    I use usb to power the board, does that disconnect rx and tx leds from showing gps status on apm?
  • Markus B August 7, 2013 at 12:04am
    I tried but MP does not connect to APM. CLI does not work, nothing happens.
  • Developer
    Bill Bonney August 6, 2013 at 3:47pm
    Have you reflashed the APM:Plane or APM:Copter sofwtare and tried typing 'setup' 'reset' 'setup' 'erase' into the CLI?
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