0x03: Ikoka Nano Noir
Dead Ikoka, whatdunit.
The problem:
During our last AustinMesh meetup, I received a present of two dead ikokas, one Nano and one Stick. Let's start with the Nano, because it's cute. Ikoka Nano boots Meshtastic (v2.7.3). Attempting to send a message it reports "No Interface". On boot it reports it is unable to start the radio.
INFO | ??:??:?? 3 S:B:255,2.7.4.d80dcd6af,seeed_xiao_nrf52840_e22_900m30s,vardas/meshtastic_firmware_mirror
...
INFO | ??:??:?? 21 SX126x init result -2
WARN | ??:??:?? 21 No SX1262 radio
ERROR | ??:??:?? 21 NOTE! Record critical error 3 at src/main.cpp:1412
...
DEBUG | ??:??:?? 3 SX126xInterface(cs=4, irq=1, rst=2, busy=3)
DEBUG | ??:??:?? 3 SX126X_DIO3_TCXO_VOLTAGE defined, using DIO3 as TCXO reference voltage at 1.800000 VCheck the obvious things first, radio (ebyte e22 900m30s) is getting power (5v) on pins 9 and 10. All grounds pins are attached to ground. No shorts between any of the pins and ground. Checked the main communication connections between Seeed nrf52 and the ebyte:
- SX126X_CS - Good
- SX126X_DIO1 - Good
- SX126X_BUSY - Good
- SX126X_RESET - Good
- SPI_MOSI - Good
- SPI_MISO - Good
- SPI_SCK - Good
Starting to look like it might be either really dead or software related. The Meshtastic and Meshcore flashers do not have an ikoka nano specific firmware. The ikoka nano github points to a dead Meshtastic specific variant. The common seeed nrf variants pin mappings do not match our board. But what does match is XIAO_BLE_LEGACY_PINOUT. Meshcore community firmware for the Nano also matches (Thanks Bill from AustinMesh!) our pin out... It couldn't be a firmware mismatch, could it?
It was a firmware mismatch
D'oh. I've flashed the Nano with a dev build of meshcore using Bill's Nano variant firmware, seems to be holding steady. I've limited the tx power to 5dBm before the amp and will let it sit in the corner and repeat my local traffic as a test.