Short-bus
commented
11 months ago Have noticed that all microcontroller types are sometimes reloaded randomly and automatically if there's a file explorer window open to the device. There may be something in the o/s which is triggering Thonny or the microcontroller to 'reboot'. This may explain some of the instances, but it doesn't explain the instances where some microcontroller types reset randomly even when no USB or Thonny connection exist. Pimoroni Tiny2040 remains the most stable of all the types.
Some microcontroller boards seem to suffer from random resets. This has been observed with multiple Raspberry Pi Pico boards, and also with an Adafruit Feather RP2040. There seems to be no obvious common cause, and all attempts to track it down have failed so far.
This is a known issue with the current design, but the cause is unknown. I have tried to eliminate POWER as a cause by trying multiple solutions to powering the boards, but the problem persists. I have tried improving the earthing, but the problem persists. I have tried incredibly simple programs using tiny amounts of memory, but the problem persists. I have tried 4 separate RPi Pico 2040s from 2 different batches, but the problem persists. The boards randomly reset even when running completely stand-alone.
The workaround at present is to use the Pimoroni Tiny2040 microcontroller. This is the same processor, but does not suffer from the resets at all. This board is smaller and has fewer GPIO pins exposed but it has just enough to perform all the tasks needed.
If a solution is found, then I will modify the motorcontrol board design to use the larger RP2040 boards because it will offer more GPIO pins for new features.