Hi,
I have this MiniPC N258N1-B NVIDIA quad-core Tegra K1. After connecting it with PC, i just press the reset button on the board and then turned it off. After that, i again connect it with the power cable and then press the power button, but there is no display on the screen. It shows the red light on the board instead of green light (After i press the power button).
Thanks & regards
Maps
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any details on the product which I could actually read. It looks somewhat like a “nearly stock but repackaged” Jetson TK1 (slight differences in the back connector layout mean it might be a custom board). If that is the case, and if it runs Linux, the serial console probably works. This would probably be your best bet if there is a software issue. I have no idea what red LED is for, but if it is like many products, red instead of green would mean a hardware issue. Perhaps the product vendor could elaborate, or if you have information translated to english it may help.
Hi,
Yes, it runs linux. I have windows 7. I connect the device through serial port, but it shows nothing at COM1 port. And, other similar device is running fine, when i directly connect it with the screen(showing green light). how would i access its Serial Console ?. Any commands (windows)through which i can directly check whether it is accessible or not.
Thanks & regards
Maps
I don’t know enough about windows and how it labels serial ports (other than “COM” numbers). If it is set up like L4T on Jetson, you can verify it is speed 115200, 8 bits, no stop bit, 1 parity (115200,8N1). The particular COM port might also be the wrong port. You mention you have another device that works…try that other device on the port your MiniPC is on, and try the MiniPC on the other device’s known working port (swap their ports, see if the serial read issue follows the port or if it follows device).
Hi,
Thanks for quick reply. I connect the running device (i mean working one) with the serial port of pc. And, by using Docklight (its like putty) i am getting response messages from this device (running one). But then i connect the other device (which is not running), but there is no response messages from the hardware. The communication port is same in both cases. Is there any other way to check whether its really a hardware issue or software.
Thanks & regards
Maps
Unless there is something unusual about the host (e.g., virtual and not native install), there isn’t much more to try. Failing serial port output on a known working port when all settings are correct and having neither a display nor networking makes debugging (short of a JTAG debugger) close to impossible. You could possibly verify power supply is working, or swap cables, but I’d consider RMA with the vendor at this point.
Hi,
I didn’t try with the Network. How would i access this device through Network (LAN)?
Thanks & regards
Maps
By default the JTK1 as shipped is configured to use DHCP to get an IP address (I assume the same is true for your TegraK1 variant). Any router which hands out an address via DHCP should work (the router itself could be used to find out what IP address was assigned…but if JTK1 has failed, it may be no DHCP request ever goes out…just seeing a logged request on the router would indicate the JTK1 booted and is probably running).
If an address is configured, ping will work and ssh can be used (make sure any firewall does not block ping and ssh to that address).
Hi,
After tried above discussed ways. Its still not booting up.
Normally the bootsequence is :-
I haven’t put any SD card in the device while booting,
Is it a requirement(In the start) ?
Is this a valid question?
Thanks & regards
Maps
Boot requirements for the custom board may be completely different versus a Jetson. Whether or not an SD card is required depends on how the custom board was designed.
I hate to say it, but it sounds like the computer is in hardware failure. If you can’t even get a DHCP request from it, then it is probably RMA time.
Hi,
Somehow, I am able to detect the device through virtual machine (ubuntu 14.04).
I am trying to flash it using sudo ./flash.sh PCP_B258 mmcblk0p1.
I get
…
sending file: ppt.img
\ 2097152/2097152 bytes sent
ppt.img sent successfully
padded 12 bytes to bootloader
sending file: u-boot.bin
Is there any way to fix this?
Thanks & regards
Maps
Error code 0x8 means “module is in invalid state to perform the requested operation”. Since this is a custom board, there isn’t anything else I can interpret. There are a lot of details which can make a VM host fail…a non-VM host is recommended…but that error tends to imply your VM was working correctly up until that point. To answer that question, you’ll likely need to talk directly to the custom board distributor.
Hi,
What could be the reason of this error? Is it because of eMMC (just bit curious about it)?
Thanks & regards
Maps
It is impossible to know what causes this in a custom board. However, I doubt it is because of eMMC failure, at least not outright. Some of the download succeeds (the ppt.img succeeded). If it is eMMC failure, it would be a partial failure.
Hi,
Thank you I really appreciate your help. I have now new device (same minipc but working).
How would i analyze its booting process, when i connect it with another device (some gaming motherboard or any other board)?
Should i connect it with serial port or some other way ?
How would i check the order or sequence of this device (i mean the gaming motherboard) in the booting process ? (Actually i want to use tegra Tk1 minipc with this gaming motherboard)
Is it the normal booting process like linux ?
Thanks & regards
Maps
Knowing more about your goals would help, e.g., how it is connected and what function it serves. What are you interested in finding out more about?
The serial port is one of the best ways to see what is going on, as serial port can function (if set up to do so) even in the boot loader prior to kernel load.
Detailed information on boot usually means having the board support package available. Possibly the manufacturer of this custom board would provide its own flash software. As a poor substitute, you may be able to clone the board and view individual partitions. A huge problem with that is much of it is simply binary data…if you are an expert in ARMv7 assembler, you might recognize what is going on after a very long study of the data.
If you are studying how things work once the kernel is loaded, then you have available many methods of study (e.g., /proc or /sys file systems). A debug version of the kernel could be installed and perhaps the Lauterbach JTAG debugger would work with it (assuming the board has a JTAG port).
Hi,
Thanks for quick reply. I have gaming motherboard (e.g coldfire board) and i want to connect
this board through bus with minipc (nvidia tegra Tk1) to enhance the graphics performance of the gaming motherboard.
I want to know how it works ?
Do i need any software or any driver to create an interface between the two boards ?
Do i need to write any small application (software) to create an interface ?
Thanks & regards
Maps
I see what you’re interested in, but this is probably not practical, except perhaps for some corner cases with specifically modified programs. Basically what you have are two full computers, one lighter weight than the other, but having some niche performance capabilities that make it act like a faster computer for those capabilities. The real benefit of the TK1 is in how fast it can be with GPU applications versus the power it draws.
Consider the common case of two full sized computers being connected to each other…typically one can’t behave as a co-processor for the other. You can come up with distributed computing libraries which let you modify individual programs and network them together, e.g., anything suitable for a Beowulf cluster or distributed message protocols.
A common video card could be added and anything on the gaming computer using GPU would take advantage of it, and the separate video card would be far faster than the TK1 (but power hungry). The number of CUDA cores and the dedicated video memory of a typical gaming video card is extreme in comparison…just don’t ask to run it off of a battery for long periods of time the way a TK1 could.
There are some cases where a dedicated TK1 could be a nice appliance. Video conferencing or media streaming would be a nice fit. Lots of people already use a TK1 for vision processing, not many have taken advantage of the rest of the multi-media capabilities for tasks like home theater.
If you have a particular application you want to work on, you could write software which uses the Linux USB gadget interface to have the device appear to be virtually any kind of USB device you want (the TK1 could appear to be a camera, a hard drive, a network hot spot, so on). What it comes down to though is really how much work you’re willing to go through to do it.
Hi,
Thankyou for sharing this information.
As per our previous discussion regarding this error :-
sending file: ppt.img
\ 2097152/2097152 bytes sent
ppt.img sent successfully
padded 12 bytes to bootloader
sending file: u-boot.bin
Are these reasons valid?
It could be caused by the failed partition of eMMC.
It could be also caused by size of file system exceeding eMMC capacity.
If yes?
Thanks & regards
Maps
Because earlier partition images are successfully sent, we know there is basic functionality that works. It is possible that the system.img size is too large, although I have some doubts that this is the cause. You know the partition for system.img was created successfully, else the image would not have started download. The flash software may not be smart enough to know the partition was too small, but you can easily check this via trying to flash a smaller size. On a Jetson, max size is with argument “-S 14580MiB”…you could try something smaller than this, e.g., “-S 12GiB”.
As far as errors go and RMA is concerned, there is no way to predict what is proper for a custom board without the manufacturer commenting. There may be something simple to edit and it all works, or it may be RMA is required. If this were purely a JTK1 I’d suggest it is time for RMA, but this is not a Jetson even if based on Tegra K1.