SB70 Ethernet lights blinking in sync; Suspect error

[davidicus]

Hi,

I have an SB70 (Parallax PINK). The network lights blink on and off in sync roughly once per second. The module will not show an ethernet connection (lights continue to blink on and off in sync) when I plug it into my router. This module was working fine. Then, with nothing changed has stopped working.

Does anyone know if there is some sort of reset or re-initialization I can do?

If not, is there any other way to correct this problem?

Thanks,

Dave

[rnixon]

The module was plugged into the network and your basic stamp, then, while running, stopped working? Nothing changed including: ethernet cable, router, ethernet port your cable was plugged into, power supply, basic stamp and/or cable? Almost sounds like a cross-wire problem on Ethernet, or low voltage to the device and it keeps resetting.

[davidicus]

I didn't have it plugged into my Stamp at all. I only had it plugged into the network. I was testing its ability to display a variable on a web page. I did not change the configuration at all when the problem started.

My power supply is a 9 volt wall wart rated at 800 mA which feeds a 5 volt voltage regulator. I checked the voltage and it was 5.3 Volts. The PINK was plugged into the power supply. Everything was great. I plugged in the Ethernet cable, used the configuration program to change the IP address to a static 192.168.1.200. Again, everything was fine. I used the pre-loaded web pages to change one of the variables. Still good. Then, went into my other computer in the other room (same network). And queried the PINK for the same variable. Worked once. Then, stopped working. I went back in to check the PINK and the Ethernet lights were blinking about once per second, in sync. My router did not show the PINK being connected any more and the configuration program can no longer find it. I cycled the power on the PINK and the router a few times, same problem. As of now, if I plug in the PINK, the lights just flash and the router/config program doesn't see it.

The only thing I can think of that might have caused a problem (though I don't understand how this could be) was that the program I was using to query the PINK for the variable may have asked to have the web page served too often, too fast. I wrote a Flash program that waits to have the web page served, then reads the data (the variable), then, asks to have the page served again to check for changes. This continues indefinitely. There is a strong possibility that my Flash program asks to have the PINK serve the page a few times per second. Is it possible that the PINK could not handle serving a web page that quickly and now it's ticked at me?

Dave

[yevgenit]

The reason of blinking Ethernet LEDs can be reloading the device due to the OS crash. For example, some bug in your code or the NB example code can cause stack corruption.
You can see the related NB messages at the debug serial port.

[rnixon]

I would agree that it is a crash/trap problem. Not because of a speed issue, but rather something else in the application is causing a trap. For example, you went to a page and the variable access has a problem (bad pointer, array, location, etc.). To recover you need to connect to the debug serial port, then download a good application, such as the factory demo that came with the dev. kit. The network capability is part of the application, so if the application is trapping, no network communication is possible.

[bbracken]

You can also enter the monitor and setup the the TFTP Server address. You then run the NB TFTP Server and add a directory to where the .S19 file is. Then you use NFLA filename from the monitor and the new application is downloaded via ethernet. This is faster and more convient than using the serial port. If you have the watchdog enabled, you will need to type SHIFT-A quickly and go into setup and disable the watchdog before it resets.

bb

[davidicus]

I appreciate the help with this.

The only problem for me is I bought this module from Parallax and as far as I know, they do not release the software that they programmed onto it.

I would be happy to learn more about programming this module from scratch. Since I did not buy this as a development kit, how do I go about reprogramming it?

Do I need to have a dev kit or can I write a program some other way? Is the dev kit a requirement for working with the SB70?

I will spend some time on the Netburner site to find this info, but I appreciate any answers you all may have.

Dave

[bbracken]

What exactly does this PINK do. It looks like it allows you to connect some other small micro to the NB so you can do web services?

bb

[davidicus]

Yeah, it is programmed by a company called Parallax, who also make the Basic Stamp microcontroller. It's meant to make it easier to get the Stamp web enabled. This was the first time I used this set-up and this is how it worked out. Certainly, not easy for me. PINK stands for Parallax Internet Netburner Kit.

[Ridgeglider]

Looks like this code is part of the standard NB examples distribution at:C:\Nburn\examples\Parallax