Pico: Bootloader mode, than not connected

I tried to flash the firmware, for that I use the Flasher tool.
After entering the bootloader mode the red and the green LEDs pulse alternating. After a few seconds both LEDs are brightly lit.

The documentation (https://www.espruino.com/Troubleshooting#on-the-espruino-pico-wifi-boards) says that this might have to do with a bad cable, but I'm getting the same result when I'm plugging the board directly into my computer.

Any idea what I could try additionally?

Tue 2021.10.05

Hi @seriousStuff and it appears we are stuck with some serious stuff to deal with! ;-)

I'm going to collect a bit more detail for others to resolve which will save some time in the
back-n-forth that they would have to do.

'I tried to flash the firmware, for that I use the Flasher tool'

Different tools, different processes, different OS's, etc
Q1: Could you explain which tool and/or process along with PC environment/OS please?

Q2: Which version is being flashed and by chance do you recall what version was there, ballpark okay? One of these perhaps, or some other file?

http://www.espruino.com/binaries/

Q3: Was any attempt made to try the 'Advanced Reflashing' ?

https://www.espruino.com/Pico#advanced-reflashing

Q4: Was an attempt made to flash directly from the WebIDE?

https://www.espruino.com/ide/
Upper Right :: Settings >> Flasher

Hi Robin,
thanks for your answer!

Sorry for not providing sufficient background, I'll do my best to answer all the open questions:

Q1: Could you explain which tool and/or process along with PC
environment/OS please?

I'm on Windows 10, I used the Flasher tool from the WebIDE (Settings > Flasher).

Q2: Which version is being flashed and by chance do you recall what version was there, ballpark okay? One of these perhaps, or some other file?

The current version is 1v91, the tool tried to flash 2v10 for the revision 1.3 of the pico board (https://www.espruino.com/binaries/espruino_2v10_pico_1r3.bin)

Q3: Was any attempt made to try the 'Advanced Reflashing' ?

I did not. I read about this but I assumed that the device is (as of now) not broken.

Q4: Was an attempt made to flash directly from the WebIDE?

Yes, I only used the WebIDE.

I believe the issue is not the flashing tool or the firmware version to be flashed. It has probably something to do with the fact that after entering bootloader mode both LEDs are lit brightly and it is not possible to connect to the board any longer.
Therefore also the Flasher tool is not able to connect to the board and do some actual flashing.

The board so far works fine!
I can just connect normally and store some sample code and execute it.

I made a video!
https://imgur.com/a/HXiwMUa

(Sorry for the sideways camera...)

Thanks for the video!

Do the LEDs go from pulsing alternately to solid when you click the Web Serial button, or just after a set period of time?

Usually when they go from alternately flashing to solid it's because some application on the computer has connected to it and started to send data. The only time I really heard of this happening was when something on someone's computer expected the Pico to be an old-school modem and started trying to send it modem commands, but I'd be surprised if that was happening here!

Actually this could be something else. I believe the Pico you have is one of the first batch that were made 6 years ago (it has a sticker on the STM32, subsequent ones didn't).

Something changed in the Windows 10 OS drivers, and I believe it meant that the Pico's bootloader no longer got detected in Windows 10 properly (or maybe w10 does treat it as a modem?), even though the Pico itself works fine when booting normally.

So you have two options:

• Find another computer and update from there. I believe Windows 7 works fine, or MacOS will work
  
• Probably the best solution here is to use 'Advanced Reflash' instructions here: http://www.espruino.com/Pico#advanced-reflashing
  
  

'Advanced Reflash' is a bit more of a faff, but it should fix your Pico for good, and you can then easily update with the IDE from Windows 10 from then on.

Hello Gordon,
thank you very much!

Do the LEDs go from pulsing alternately to solid when you click the Web Serial button, or just after a set period of time?

The latter, it changes to solid without interaction.

I believe the Pico you have is one of the first batch that were made 6 years ago

This is very likely, it backed the kickstarter campaign of the pico and got this one as a reward. (Just checked, that was Apr 2015! 👌)

Since I don't have a non W10 computer, I'll try my luck with the Advanced Reflash!

Thank you for the kind and fast replies, appreciate it very much!

Sorry to bother you again, but I'm having trouble using the Advanced Reflash...

As described in the documentation, I shortened the BOOT0/BTN solder jumper and plugged in the device while pressing the button. In the device overview a stm32 bootloader is shown, I guess that means that it is in the proper state (screenshot).
I then tried to use the DFU tool to flash the firmware, but ultimately I'm stuck here. The tool doesn't seem to recognize the pico in any configuration I tried (see screenshot).

Maybe you've got any idea on how I could proceed? Thanks!

2 Attachments

Argh - I just had a quick google and found this: https://community.st.com/s/question/0D50X0000AwWPPhSQO/dfusedemo-v306-not-working-after-windows-10-update

So it looks like at some point Windows changed something else and broke that flashing tool. It seems they now recommend this one: https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stm32cubeprog.html

Please can you give that a go and let me know how you get on? If it works I'll change all the docs.

Appearing as STM32 BOOTLOADER is perfect though - that means the hardware is all in the right state and ready to go - it's just the flashing software that's not working.

TL;DR: It works!

Yesterday I gave the Espruino Pico one last shot trying my luck again to flashing the bootloader, still no success.
I was a couple minutes ago I was in the process to cleanup all related tabs and call it a day, when I reloaded this thread and just then realized that you posted an answer already 10 days ago...It must have slipped through somehow...

I downloaded the tool from the provided URL and followed this step-by-step instructions: https://doc.qt.io/QtForMCUs/qtul-flashinginstructions-st-bootloader.html

Flashing worked just fine.
After removing pencil marks on the BOOT0/BTN solder jumper, I could enter the bootloader mode just fine (LEDs keep pulsing, instead of changing to the "solid" state).

I couldn't connect to the board though the device showed up in the serial port connection menu.
I checked the trouble shooting section that exactly described this and after restarting first chrome and than my PC it now works flawlessly as far I can tell.
(I had a error message in the Web IDE when flashing code to the device, that is now gone)

Thank you gordon for being so helpful!

BRB, flashing my remaining Picos...