Sensortile.box - STEVAL-MKSBOX1V1 doesn't turn on (and some more issues)

[Fouwkes]

Hi everyone, I've had many many issues with the board and now it looks like it's broken. I can't turn it on, but let's start from the beginning.

I've got the STEVAL-MKSBOX1V1 (SensorTile.box) with a blue plastic cover.

Now, I've tested some simple functionalities from the Entry and Expert level (using ST BLE Sensor Android App) and there are already a few issues I hope I'll get some help with:

1. Power button doesn't always work. Turning off or on - Sometimes I have to reconnect it to the battery so it resets.
2. Logging very often automatically stops after a short period of time - I think it happens when the .csv file weight reaches 749kB, but I'm not 100% sure. I just noticed that when that happens, one of the files (and it's always that weights the most) is 749kB.
3. Log files that you can delete or export using the app are not stored in SD card - where are they stored exactly?
4. Log files are sometimes not created at all, like I didn't even start logging.
5. Output to SD card Buffer 10000 setting makes hieroglyphs appear in .csv file. Why? Why it sometimes says that it has to be set at 1000 minimum and sometimes not, so you can set it at 0? What the buffer setting is? What does that do?
6. Log files are sometimes empty just with the column names present. How should I log properly?
7. Uploaded vibration training app - works fine, the .csv file has been created (I checked), but when I upload the vibration compare app it says that there's no file to compare live vibrations to... but it's right there on the SDcard. When I connect to the board the virtual diode is always turned on. Why doesn't it work?

(8) Now, the only issue in Pro mode I came around so far is I uploaded Asset Tracking firmware onto the board and it worked fine, but the battery is making it weird. After 11h of work it dropped from around 94% to 88%, but when I checked another 13h later it was already dead. It turns off at around 20%(?) and the recorded data is lost when it dies off battery. My question is - how long does the battery last for certain modes and why does it lose recorded data when battery runs out?

(9) And finally, the most important issue I have right now. When I met my issue no.7 - compare app not finding a file to compare to - I thought that maybe just reinstalling firmware might help me get this problem solved, so I downloaded v349.bin on the phone and updated the firmware through the ST BLE Sensor app. I used to do this through PC using STM32CubeProg, but this time I made it through the app.

Upload completed. It says "Restart the board to complete the update" - Power button obviously doesn't work so I disconnect and connect the battery as always, but this time when I reconnect the battery, the power button doesn't work, nor does connecting a charger to the usb or connecting the board to pc via usb. It doesn't turn on. I can't make it work no matter what and I don't know what to do now. Do you guys have any ideas?

Please refer to the issue using the numbers so it's easier for everyone, thank you!

Edit: When SensorTile is plugged in to the powerbank, the powerbank starts blinking indicating it's charging, but the board doesn't turn on and leds do not light up.

[Eleon BORLINI]

Hi @Dominik Wołczyk​ ,

I have checked with our experts, and basically the original issue is the following one:

1. Power button doesn't always work. Turning off or on - Sometimes I have to reconnect it to the battery so it resets.

The Sensortile.box doesn't have a "power off" button, and if the battery is not fully down, the only way to be sure you are resetting the board is to remove the battery cable.

This is a well-known limitation and will be fixed in the near future in the next hardware revision of the board.

About the SD card logs, please note that you cannot stream all the sensors at once on the SD card, especially including the microphone, since the format of the microphone is different from the one of the other sensors (is a .wav file). It is also better to select the same ODR for all the sensor you are using (this is easy for the inertial sensors such as gyro and axl, but it's lower for environmental sensors). You also have to be sure of the mechanical stability of the SD connector, since sometimes is is hit by the battery that is attached below it.

And well, the battery charger is not so precise: for an asset tracking application you should select a low ODR for all sensors (inertial and environmental), or better you could log only the threshold crossing above a certain gyro / axl threshold, in order to save battery time. In this way, it should last about 1 week.

You can find here the instruction for the recovery of the board in case of issues --> SensorTile.box #NaN: How to safely recover your SensorTile.box in case it shows any problem

-Eleon

[BSalt.1]

>>7. Uploaded vibration training app - works fine, the .csv file has been created (I checked), but when I upload the vibration compare app it says that there's no file to compare live vibrations to... but it's right there on the SDcard. When I connect to the board the virtual diode is always turned on. Why doesn't it work?

My answer is too late, I hope your problem has already been solved, but there are still people with the same problem, so I share my experience.

We are happy to accept the ST BLE Sensor App prompt to upgrade the firmware in SensorTile.box to the latest.

However, some demo apps that use accelerometers do not work with the latest firmware.

In the case of the vibration monitor described by the questioner above, it shows an error message saying there is no file to compare.

The way to solve this problem is to downgrade the firmware of SensorTile.box to v3.4.7. In this way, all demo apps will work normally.

[RRobl.1]

Thanks for the help. Where can I find v3.4.7 firmware?

[francus76]

I'm having the same problem after uploading firmware 1.0.0 found on ST site via the app. Have you solved in any way the impossibility to wake up the SensorTile.box anymore?

Thanks,

Francesco