I built the kit, I created a boot SD, and the device does not boot. When I switch it on with a newly created 64 GB SD card, the red LED on the raspi 5 goes on briefly, and then the green LED goes on and stays permanently lit. As a test, II booted the SD card in another raspi5. There, the raspi5 briefly lights up the red LED and then the green LED blinks. Thent I get a regular boot sequence, and then the screen with the female face. After that there is an error message about MIDI (and audio?) setup.So the SD card seems to be ok.
I then rewrote the SD card again (to have a clean image) and tried again. Same problem.
I get es far as the red LED briefly light up and then the green LED permamently staying on, no blinking.
Is there a way of debugging so i can locate the problem?
It sounds like something is a bit wrong with the connection from the RPi uSD socket to the Zynthian mainboard. I recommend you check the flat cable connection carefully. You could also try plugging the sdcard directly into the RPi temporarily to see if that works.
I would not rule out the possibility that it is a bad-incompatible sdcard - was the other RPi that you tried also a pi5? The Pi5 has a much faster signal rate to the uSD card, so it is much more sensitive to problems with the card. If you have another 32 or 64 GB SD card that would be worth a try.
Putting the SD card in the slot on the raspi makes things work. The connector cable from the main board to the SD card slot on the raspi might be the problem. Can I get a replacement?
Since this is small you could just put it in an envelope.
My original order # is SO13392.
If that cable is bad I’m sure @jofemodo at Zynthian Labs will send you a replacement. But at this point I think that’s still rather unlikely. Have you checked the connections at each end?
And do you have another good branded 32 or 64 GB sd card to try? The cable, even a good one, introduces some additional load and delay so if the card is marginal that could still be the problem. What brand and model is the card?
I am not a Zynthian Labs employee, just a fellow Zynthianer trying to help.
The card I use is a 64 GB SanDisk Extreme.
I also tried a 128GB Transcend 400x.
I’ve had issues with cards bigger than 32G in the past.
Yeah, there’s definitely an issue with bigger SD cards, I’m not sure how much of that is due to some intrinsic incompatibility with Zynthian-RPi, I think it’s mostly due to the bigger the card, the greater the odds that it’s counterfeit!
I’ve had the best experience with Samsung and Sandisk 32GB cards.
Also, the program you use to write the card can make a difference - the two I’m familiar with are Balena Etcher and Raspberry Pi Imager. At various times one or the other seems better, despite doing a verify after the write.
I’m sorry that this all sounds so Voodooish, but I would suggest trying a 32GB Samsung or Sandisk and both writer programs to see if you can get a happy card.
Or you can request a replacement cable, but I personally find opening up the Zynthian and replacing the cable more work and less successful than getting the ‘right’ SD card and writer program.
In the long term, I’m hoping this issue goes away with NVMe drives!
Counterfeit cards are certainly a prolific problem but even with genuine devices, my experience has been poor with larger capacity - not just on zynthian. I worked on a project deploying Windows 10 using Integral 128GB USB sticks and they were pretty unreliable. I have an Integral drive in my pocket today and have low level of trust in it (even though this one hasn’t given me reason to be concerned… yet!)
I just read this in another topic, so if you want to go that route you should have a spare cable already. But I would still suggest trying a 32GB card first as the easier and more likely to lead to success.
I’ve used Raspberry Pi Imager and can’t honestly say I’ve had a problem with any 32G that aren’t beyond saving and are recognised when they mount. Mine are generally Sandisk Ultra 32G with occasional ‘others’ along the way. I tend to keep five or six of them and cycle throu them as I burn new SSD’s…