Hello Raspberry Shake team,
My Raspberry Shake has a problem, it isn’t connecting at all, I see it is or a power problem or a internet connection issue…
See, I detected this problem when the red LED light turned off, and then it wouldn’t appear on ShakeNet or StationView
I tried plugging it off and on and it didn’t work
I have some photos of the RS:
Hello jboutet, and welcone back to our community!
Yes, the disappearance of the red LED is quite unusual, as you have correctly thought. Could you please reboot the Shake and tell me where the LED behavior deviates from the normal sequence, as listed here Technical Specifications — Instructions on Setting Up Your Raspberry Shake?
This should provide insight into what is possibly going on with your unit.
Thank you.
Hello, I rebooted the Shake, still not working & connecting
Also when I plug in the Shake, the red light turns on and then a green light turns on and then the red light turn off again.
Maybe logs could help? I’m sending them just in case you need them
Thank you very much!
RSH.R69E9.2023-04-30T16_42_51.logs.tar (4.4 MB)
Hello jboutet,
Thank you for the last logs from that Shake and further feedback. From them, it appears that, at the start, the Pi board was not able to see the blue Shake board above it:
2023 120 16:40:10: Unable to read Firmware version number off of Serial Port /dev/serial0 after trying for 15 seconds, cannot continue!
2023 120 16:40:10: Is the Pi computer connected to the Raspberry Shake Board? Please confirm and try again.
Furthermore, these lines in the logs, tell us that there is something going on between the boards and the sensors:
2023 120 16:18:21>> 1?ªQ],]àE?ÔU!EEM??QWUBW?E{ÿOk3I]ª?]?Q
2023 120 16:18:21>> Z???ÿOk?M?DY2S??Ë?AÀU
2023 120 16:18:21>> 'AAPJE
2023 120 16:18:21>> X???E?J]?äL]ª
2023 120 16:18:21>> AAºEBa?aàQ??UÂ?EU??WÂFIà[??Q??E!E
2023 120 16:18:21>> 1?E
2023 120 16:18:21>> W?RQ?$Aa]?EU?Q?EIÐS Q•UUUªQ:
2023 120 16:18:21>> 16367 25
As you can see, there are errors mixed with some ‘gibberish’ that cannot be successfully interpreted. My first thought would be to check and see if the power supply is delivering a stable voltage between 5.0 and 5.2V and a current of at least 2.5A at all times, as a decrease in power could lead to data services interruption. If you have another Pi power supply that you know is in working condition, please try to exchange the current one with that, and see if the Shake now properly boots.
A second check that you can do is to see if all the connections between the sensor, the blue Shake board, and the Pi board are still solid and free from dirt or any other element that could compromise transmission. This is important, in particular, if the Shake is located in an environment where dust or moisture can affect it. If needed, you can find assembly guides here in our manual: Assembly Guide — Instructions on Setting Up Your Raspberry Shake
When doing this, please make sure you are using proper ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge) protection (such as gloves, etc.), as electronics do not like static electricity too much.
If all these checks come out as positive, then I would recommend re-burning the microSD card, and see how the Shake behaves with a freshly-installed system. I will leave the burning instructions here for your convenience:
Thank you for your collaboration!
Hello, thank you for the response, I have the following information:
Hello jboutet,
From what you describe, yes, it appears that the Shake requires some maintenance that you can do by yourself without issues, just using the appropriate methods.
The first step is to shut down the Shake, disconnect it from all cables, and then extract it from its current location.
Using proper ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge) protection (such as gloves, etc.), disassemble the Shake (you can follow the assembling instructions in reverse - Assembly Guide — Instructions on Setting Up Your Raspberry Shake) and then gently clean all the boards and contacts with a soft brush, or with compressed air that is used to clean computer parts - you should be able to find both either online or in PC shops.
Once everything has been cleaned up, re-assemble the Shake following the same instructions in the video at the previous link, re-connect all cables, and turn it on. If the issues you are experiencing disappeared, that was all it needed.
If not, you can then extract the microSD card (two years old is not much, but if you want, you can buy a new one online, or again in PC/photography shops. Make sure that they are commercial-grade (MLC) or industrial-grade (SLC)) from its slot (highlighted)
And re-burn it following the instructions I have provided in the message above. If you don’t feel doing this, you can also buy a ready-to-use microSD card from our shop: Pre-Programmed SD Card | Raspberry Shake
Lastly, yes, it appears that you definitely need some kind of adapter, as this turning on/off randomly is, as you suspected, not normal. I cannot precisely advise you on where to buy a new adapter as I don’t know how things are set up in your country, but you need to find a reseller of official Raspberry Pi equipment and then ask for the official Raspberry Pi 3 power adapter. Usually, websites such as Amazon or similar should have everything you need.
UPDATE 2: thank you for the solutions!
I’m here at Veraguas again and tried the first option, used compressed air and then the red LED light turned on, but the Ethernet lights and the green light are not turning on, weird.
Also, I will be buying a Raspberry Pi Power Supply and don’t know if this can work for my Shake, please let me know, thank you!
That power supply says 5.1v, 3A.
So it should be fine.
Hello jboutet,
Glad to hear that, and yes, the official Pi adapter is what we also recommend, so you can go ahead and buy it for your Shake. As this one has a USB-C power output adapter, you will have to use the USB-C to Micro-USB converter you already have to be able to connect it to the Shake.
For the missing Green and Orange LAN lights, I would say let’s wait until you have the new power supply connected and running. If they still do not appear after that, I recommend:
changing the LAN cable with another one that you have available and that you know is in working conditions; or
re-burning the microSD card and checking if the LAN connection issues were related to some corrupted files due to the power supply problems the Shake has been experiencing.
