We have some serious issues with the Hydra+ board (HPLUS-GB-530) Rev 1. We were using the discontinued Hydra board (HYDRA-GB-328) rev 1.3, but now trying to make sure the code still works on Hydra+, but we can’t even get one to turn on and stay on.
We followed the instructions here
Using the “Latest Release” NETMF and Gadgeteer Package 2014 R5
First, I checked Device Manager, and I see it as “USB > GHI NETMF Interface”.
Next, I opened FEZ Config to check that the Hydra+ firmware was up to date. Here is where the problem starts. FEZ Config recognizes the device as “FEZ Hydra (non-commercial use)_Gadgeteer” (let’s ignore the new “non commercial use” for now. That was not on the Hydra.)
Here is the output information direct from FEZ Config:
Pinging… TinyBooter
Loader (TinyBooter) version information:
4.3.6.0 on this computer.
4.3.6.0 on this device.
The Loader (TinyBooter) is up to date. <<<
Firmware (TinyCLR) version information:
4.3.6.0 on this computer.
Firmware (TinyCLR) Version: Not present on the device.
The device is in Loader mode.
Click on ‘Reboot CLR’ under the Advanced menu to reboot the device.
So I reboot CLR, and then I get this:
Pinging… TinyCLR
Pinging… TinyCLR
Pinging… NoConnection
Note that it still displays “FEZ Hydra (non-commercial use)_Gadgeteer” as the Device (see attached screen shot)
The board keeps “dying”, or at least disconnecting. Sometimes it will come back to TinyCLR, sometimes it will come back as TInyBooter without anything other than pushing reset or reconnecting USB, not doing any of the hard reset nonsense with the button or shorting pins.
If it shows up as TinyBooter, I can get it to respond to multiple pings and check for updates. However, after I get it back to TinyCLR with a Reboot CLR command or anytime it sees it to start with, after a couple of pings it can’t connect. Once it pings Tiny CLR you cannot ever check device for update, it will say no device found.
We thought maybe it was FEZ Config. Running v2.0.6.0. There is nowhere that I can find a later version even after installing latest SDK. So we ran MFdeploy instead. Same problem (see pic). Can ping TinyCLR, but then says nothing connected. No change under Device in MFDeploy or in Device Manager, still shows USB “GHI NETMF Interface”.
We thought it might be a dead board, so we hooked up another one. Same problem. We thought it might be the PC, so we hooked it up to another PC. The problem was even worse. It would show TinyCLR, and then the device would disappear. Once that happens, you had to restart windows. Otherwise it would not recognize the device (in FEZ Config, MFDeploy, and Device Manager). In fact it would not even recognize an older Hydra board either after the Hydra+ messed it up. We have no issues connecting to a Hydra board with either PC. It displays below after check for update:
Loader (TinyBooter) version information:
4.3.6.0 on this computer.
4.2.6.1 on this device.
The Loader (TinyBooter) not up to date. <<<
Firmware (TinyCLR) version information:
4.3.6.0 on this computer.
4.2.6.1 on this device.
The Firmware (TinyCLR) is not up to date. <<<
Please wait for the device to reboot… Done.
I thought maybe it was an issue with TinyBooter version as described in another post. We tried following the instructions here
https://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/39/fez-hydra-developers-guide
Specifically “Loader Update” at the bottom. However, the device never becomes a COM port. Never ever. Sometimes it will show up as “other devices, unknown device”. But after a reset or 2 it comes back as a USB device. So we can’t use either SAM-BA or the Update.bat utilities.
Since there is no way to update TInyBooter without the COM port, then I can’t even check what would happen to updating TinyBooter and CLR on an older Hydra board.
Running WIndows 7 64 bit SP1
Bonus) This page has a broken link
https://www.ghielectronics.com/docs/39/fez-hydra-developers-guide
“FEZ Hydra software components are available at https://bitbucket.org/ghi_elect/fez-hydra”
Bitbucket says “Oops, you’ve found a dead link.” This is just one of many broken links on the GHI site.