VT132 kit error message

[wb4...@gmail.com]

I just put together my VT132 kit and plugged it into my RC2014.  I unplugged the usb to serial ttl adaptor on the sio/2 board.  Now, the vga monitor starts up, show wait, then “error” with a long beep.  If I hit a key on the attached ps2 keyboard, I hear clicks from the vt132 board, so it seems the ESP32 is sort of working.

All four serial jumpers are on, nothing plugged into the program and modem connections.  The clock speed jumpers are still set for 115,200 baud, I didn’t change anything else on the RC2014 itself.

Any idea on what could be causing this?  I’ve gone over the soldering, but I will again.

Thanks for the help. Terry

[wb4...@gmail.com]

PS: the motherboard has expanded connectors at all slots, and I tried other slots for the vt132.

[wb4...@gmail.com]

Duh!  Reading the instruction more carefully again, I found the large yellow box detailing the nvram not being initialized yet.

NEVERMIND!!!

[wb4...@gmail.com]

So I decided to take a break from building S100 boards and try the VT132 board again.  The version is still 1.0, as originally received.  I figured out the serial port connections and jumpers (I think), and actually connected to my router... once.  I was also able to use the VT132 as a terminal for my RC2014.

Then, it wouldn’t connect to the router via WiFi anymore.  So, I decided it was time to do a firmware update.  After a lot of messing with Python on two different computers, I got it updated to version 1.2.  But now, every time I try to put in my ssid & pad with the AT+W= command (or whatever the command is, the ESP32 ends up in a constant rebooting loop.  I did clear no ram, etc.

I am using the vga/keyboard to execute the AT commands, and watching the FTDI connector with TeraTerm on a laptop.  Once this rebooting loop starts, I see the boot messages, followed by two error messages:

spiram: SPI SRAM memory test fail.  131072/1310uw writes failed, first @ 3F80000

E (902) cpu-start: External RAM failed memory test!

Before I updated the firmware I did the esptools ram test, and all was fine.  I used the exact line shown in the instruction, except for changing the COM port to COM12, which was correct for the Windows box I was using.

Could the spi ram really have gone bad?  This board hasn’t had power on it since last November.  I don’t think I could have destroyed it doing an update.... I realize parts fail, but this seems wrong....

Anyone else have issues like this?

Thanks, terry, N4TLF

[wb4...@gmail.com]

One more question....  is the FTDI connector on top of the board that connects to the ESP32 for programming it, 5 volt tolerant?  I hope so, otherwise that’s a problem....

Terry

[TheHighNibble]

I have always used a 5V FTDI programmer with it without a problem.

[wb4...@gmail.com]

After some more work, and comments from Dave and others, I found two things that contributed to my problems.

I never did see it, but apparently there was something wrong with my soldering around the pins associated with the SPI RAM.  The pins did not show shorts to each other or +V or ground, but after I resoldered ALL the pins on the esp32 module, the error about not finding the SPI chip went away.

I got tired of removing the VT132 board from the RC2014 constantly during debugging, so I tried to use the VT132 by itself, with power supplied via the FTDI pins.  When I did that, I no longer saw the lack of SPI RAM, but now the esp32 kept saying it couldn't find the esp32 power settings, so it was using the defaults settings.  Whenever I tried to connect to my wifi router, the board would reset and reboot.  It turns out that the FTDI did not provide adequate power to start up wifi connections.  I plugged the VT132 back into the RC2014 and powered it from there.  Now, the VT132 is running fine with the RC2014.

I asked Dave to purchase another VT132.  It is a very nice board, and with all the RS232/FTDI stuff that I have, it's nice to run a VGA monitor and PS/2 or USB keyboard.  I'm going to find my old 8-port VGA/PS2 KVM switch box so I can put a bunch of the smaller CP/M systems together on one monitor & keyboard.

Thanks Dave and others for the help!

73, Terry, N4TLF