Is it broken?

[jake52]

Recently received a Tiny TV and its possibly broken. I cannot get it to play any files using the charged battery or USB. When connecting to the computer it will only appear as a com port if I specifically hold the top left button when powering on, after which it displays, 'TinyScreen+ Bootloader Mode'. I can then communicate using the Arduino IDE and have uploaded the TinyTV.ino package, but still without any luck. The sd card is readable on a PC and tsv files are present. Also have tried the settings menu, holding the top right button when powering but nothing is displayed.

obviously something is working in order to get the bootloader screen, but that is as far as I can get

Any ideas?
Thanks

[lennevia]

Hello,

The screen is definitely working if you can see the "bootloader" message as you've noticed. Is the hardware you're working with inside the TV enclosure? I'd advise taking it out and re-assembling just the hardware. It's possible the connectors between the SD & audio TinyShield are not fully connected and this could cause strange behavior like what you are describing.

When you first assembled the kit, did you get anything to show up on the screen like "Sd Card not detected" or any videos? Or has it always been a blank screen?

Let me know!

Thanks,
Réna

[jake52]

I have not yet added the kit to the TV enclosure as I wanted to test it first. Nothing appears on the screen except if I go into bootloader mode. I have also tried an alternative SD card with your same standard files.

[lennevia]

If you are using a different SD Card than the one that ships with the kit, you would likely need to reformat it to FAT32 as advised in the FAQ on the product page here: https://tinycircuits.com/products/tinytv-diy-kit

The kits ship pre-programmed so there should have been no need to program the board. Did nothing appear on the screen ever? When programming did you get the "Done uploading." message?

If the screen displays the "bootloader" text, it's likely that something is corrupt with the software loaded on the hardware to produce nothing after a successful upload.

Best,
Réna

[jake52]

I tried a different sd card, correctly formatted and there wasn't a difference. As said previously the only thing ever displayed is the bootloader text when the top left button is pressed. "Done uploading" does not appear or "SD card not detected". If the bootloader is corrupted is there an easy way to reflash is to factory defaults?

[lennevia]

Sorry for letting this topic sit for so long. You can try re-uploading the program: https://learn.tinycircuits.com/Kits/Tiny-Video-Program/

You should see a "Done uploading" message after uploading the program using the Arduino IDE.

Make sure you are making the correct selections in the Tools menu in the IDE, and that you go through the TinyScreen+ tutorial first before the tinytv program tutorial: https://learn.tinycircuits.com/Processors/TinyScreen+_Setup_Tutorial/

Let me know how that goes!

Best,
Réna

[jake52]

All fixed now, but not sure how. Out of desperation tried uploading various programs and the arcade one brought it to life. After this I no longer needed to go into bootloader mode before the com port would be accessible so at this point I uploaded the video program and everything is working as expected.

[jake52]

You can see it in action here, just a modification I was contemplating for a pinball machine. Thanks again for your help. https://youtu.be/WHKOZL4aHBc

[lennevia]

Wow, that looks awesome! I am glad the hardware fixed itself somehow.

Is the modification meant to be embedded in the score display or playfield?

Did you attach a different speaker to it? We would love to share your modification on social media if you were open to the idea! Or if you wanted to share it yourself and tag @tinycircuits we could repost whatever you share!

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'd be happy to help advise you on how to get your modification working!

Cheers,
Réna

[jake52]

No it's not meant for scoring, just to add more bling to the playfield, so as it is currently setup I'm not using the speaker. Pinball modding is quite popular within the community and I did this as a proof of concept to show to others. Ideally a slightly larger display would be more appropriate, but your product helped me show the idea. There are other display modifications used but the flexibility of being able to put what you like on the SD card made your product more appealing.