iConnect and Patroit XT 4GB USB Stick Cold Boot Problems

[AlaskaWX]

I am just getting an iConnect going with a Patriot Xporter XT 4GB USB stick and the bootstrap and install process has been successful. However I am having problems with cold boots of the device. Warm boots from software updates and the meteohub Maintenance web page work fine and the iConnect will be back online in about 45 seconds. The USB stick Clone function also works properly.

With a power-cycle (cold) reboot, the main iConnect blue LED will flash for approx 30 seconds, then the USB stick's LED will flash a few times, then the main iConnect blue LEB will start flashing again and the boot does not take place. The funning thing is, if I let the iConnect sit for several hours (between three and eight) with the blue LED flashing it will eventually reboot properly and come online by itself.

About 1 in 20 times a cold boot will process normally and the iConnect will boot and come online in about 90 seconds.

During a warm reboot as soon as the USB stick LED flashes the main iConnect blue LED will stop flashing when the boot process starts.

This behavior is identical with both Patriot Xporter XT 4GB USB sticks that I have.

Is there any explanation for this strange behavior?

I currently don't have the weather station (Davis VP2) hooked up to the iConnect if that makes any difference. Otherwise everything seems to be working great.

As soon as I can get this problem worked out I will be purchasing a full meteohub iConnect license.

Thanks from Alaska.

[admin]

Patriot Xporter XT Boost 4GB works extremly reliable here. Are you sure you are using this one:

px4gb.png (61.56 KiB) Viewed 13977 times

[AlaskaWX]

Yes, they look indentical to the ones you are using...

IConnect-usb-XT (Small).jpg (45.08 KiB) Viewed 13970 times

[admin]

Strange, then go with the second best cheap one: "Super-Talent Pico 4GB"

As discussed here: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=8668#p11187

[AlaskaWX]

Alright. I have a 4GB Jetflash 130 TS4GJF130 on order. Maybe it will work better...

[admin]

I am sure the Transcend will. I just tested a bunch of my Xporters and indeed some seem to have cold boot problems.
I just patched the uboot settings that the initial USB stick does flash into uboot environment in a way that
when first boot fails, a warm reboot will be started. This cures the boot hangs of an already setup
Meteohub reliable. I will drop a note, when this new stick image for 4.9 is available for download.

Unfortunately, this will not cure boot problems with the stick for the very first time, before this
update into uboot has been done. So if initial installation does fail I would recommend to start
iConnect in regular operation as designed by iomega, do click through inital setup until you can reach
the "dashboard". There you will find a "restart" function as circled in red below.

icon-dash.png (60.33 KiB) Viewed 13965 times

Plug prepared Meteohub USB stick into the iConnect and press restart link (marked red on the
picture above). During restart keep reset button pressed with a paper clip until LED turns red and proceed as described
in the Meteohub iConnect installation instructions.

Following this procedure your Xporters should work reliable. Cold boot will take a couple of minutes,
as uboot needs quite some time until giving up on the first cold boot USB load cycle, but it will start
for sure.

[AlaskaWX]

Great. Looking forward to trying the new stick image for the new 4.9 uBoot settings. I've never had any hangs or problems with the flash booting process to install meteohub on the iConnect with the Patriot Xporter XT sticks. Only cold boot problems on an already installed meteohub system.

[admin]

The new stick image is online now: http://www.meteohub.de/files/mhiconnect-stick-v4.9.rar
Please give it a try. Cold boot will take a few minutes, when sticks fails on first attemp,
because inital "usb start" uboot command takes quite some time until it quits with a time out.

The new image is exactly the old 4.9 image, but has one line in the setup script changed:

old

Code: Select all

bootcmd=run make_boot_args mh_make_boot_args mh_bootcmd_usb; bootm 0x800000; run bootcmd

new

Code: Select all

bootcmd=run make_boot_args mh_make_boot_args mh_bootcmd_usb; bootm 0x800000; reset

[FacEngRet]

The new stick image returns an "unexpected end of archive" error when trying to open with WinRAR. I downloaded twice with the same results.

[AlaskaWX]

Getting the same error here:

! E:\meteohub iConnect\meteohub\mhiconnect-stick-v4.9.rar: CRC failed in mhiconnect-stick-v4.9.img. The file is corrupt
! E:\meteohub iConnect\meteohub\mhiconnect-stick-v4.9.rar: Unexpected end of archive

Looks like a CRC error on the enclosed .img file.

[admin]

Looks like the upload has been aborted for some reason... I will do again.

[AlaskaWX]

Got the new .img file and installed it. The new uBoot sequence works a treat now. Takes about 3 1/2 mins to get online after a cold boot. Good work!

[admin]

Great, so we have kind of a workaround for iConnects picky uboot - at least for the very durable Xporter XT Boost 4GB.

[markhiseman]

Glad to see this fix, as I too had problems with cold boot on a 4GB Xporter XT Boost recently, after a power cut, and lost all my data for March.

I wonder if the same fix will allow the 8GB version to work reliably - I know Boris had problems with that booting during testing.

Mark.

[admin]

I did try the 8GB with the new uboot endless reset loop, but no luck. Please keep away from Patriot sticks > 4GB.