Author Topic: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide  (Read 7187 times)

Offline steve_hirst

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Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« on: June 17, 2012, »
Ok guys,

We all have made those little fowlups that have made life difficult for us in diy. During the Academy discusions it came up that one way to help improve both the site and community in a whole would be to make a troubleshooting outline or guide to be placed in the wiki and possibly as a sticky in the forum. I decided that since I am here I can start the first one(easy one) to see how it goes.

I do need input from all of you though. I have put together a small list of problems/symptoms that I found with the search option but as I have only built one and have only been a member here for relatively a short time. I need your input on problems and fixes that all of you have come across.

These are what I have found,
Problem                                                symptom                                                 fix
swapped voltage regulators                     no power                                           swap back
Push buttons backward                          leds don't advance                       turn them around
                                                       no power                   check for 3.3vdc across .1uf cap
                                                  no power                     check for vdc on #12 hour led
                                             all leds on                            pull battery and reflash firmware
                                        Minute will only start at 30         Pull battery and reflash firmware

Pleas let me know of any other problems and fixes that you can think of on the aeom please. Maybe if this goes well, we can free up some time for RJ and others to work on some new projects.

Thanks, Steve Hirst

Offline Steve Gase

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2012, »
This was a simple getting-started kit, and the only problem I experienced was a single LED not lighting.

Behavior: Red (or Green) LED did not light. 

Solution: check the soldering on the problem LED.

Alternate solution: apply (?) voltage to that led and to a working led to ensure both were installed in the same order (maybe the bad led was installed with reverse polarity)
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Offline steve_hirst

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2012, »
Thanks Steve,

yes, I wanted to start with an easy one so I could work out any problems with the flowchart software and things. After I finish this one I plan to move to the dongle, then maybe the lynx v5, but I thought an easy one to get the kinks worked out. The flowchart software that I am playing with (since you are the one that brought it up to begin with) is  Diagram Designer 1.25. Its free and seems to work well, for the little time I have played with it.

Offline Steve Gase

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2012, »
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Thanks Steve,

yes, I wanted to start with an easy one so I could work out any problems with the flowchart software and things. After I finish this one I plan to move to the dongle, then maybe the lynx v5, but I thought an easy one to get the kinks worked out. The flowchart software that I am playing with (since you are the one that brought it up to begin with) is  Diagram Designer 1.25. Its free and seems to work well, for the little time I have played with it.
This is great, Steve!  I'll need to look at the software soon...
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Offline kfxi

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2012, »
This post is a came at the right time  I have had mine since the first coop and it has worked perfectly,  however when I get back from the Academy I went to my shop and the time was off  by several hours,  I set the time and checked back later and the time was way off again. I think this a oscillator or a chip failure.  Has anyone seen this problem?

Ken Austin

Offline Steve Gase

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2012, »
Nothing strong... to go by, but when we gone on vacation my son left his unplugged for 2 weeks, and when power was restored it lost about 5 minutes.  Before that, it was keeping good time.  So, it might be interesting to observe time-keeping behavior when using only the battery.
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Offline steve_hirst

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2012, »
Kfxi,

I hate to say this but I don't know either. You may get a better response with a new thread though.

Offline tbone321

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2012, »
I would try changing the backup battery. 
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Offline Penfold

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2012, »
The first one I built worked flawlessly.  The second one I had would only go to the 30 min mark when trying to set the minutes.  I got around it by waiting for the time to go past the 30 min mark and then I set the correct minute.  After that the clock has worked fine believe it or not apart from setting the time.
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Cow go moo
Piggy go *snort* *snort*
how bout you?  ♪

Offline Steve Gase

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2012, »
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The first one I built worked flawlessly.  The second one I had would only go to the 30 min mark when trying to set the minutes.  I got around it by waiting for the time to go past the 30 min mark and then I set the correct minute.  After that the clock has worked fine believe it or not apart from setting the time.
It seems that the universal first action for all kits is to reflash the firmware... did you try that prior to your 30-min 'fix'?
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Offline Penfold

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2012, »
No, I haven't tried to reflashed the pic, but I guess I will try that.  The clock is working great and has been for the last month and a half or so and that's why I never dealt with reprogramming.  I could do it though and see what happens.
♪Chicken go cluck, cluck
Cow go moo
Piggy go *snort* *snort*
how bout you?  ♪

Offline RJ

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2012, »
On the battery they do not keep as good of time but normally not that far off.

The 30 min thing is a bug that I have yet to trace down.

RJ
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Offline rrowan

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2012, »
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On the battery they do not keep as good of time but normally not that far off.

The 30 min thing is a bug that I have yet to trace down.

RJ

If it helps, I could send you a can of RAID

Rick R.
Light Animation Hobby - Having fun and Learning at the same time. (21st member of DLA)
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Warning SOME assembly required

Offline steve_hirst

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Re: Aeon Troubleshooting Guide
« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2012, »
So this is all o9f the problems found in the aeon?

I will leave this open for a few more days, then I will create a flowchart.