[solved] PreenFM3 new built problem

[Kyg]

Hi,

I received my PreenFM3 DIY kit from Van Daal today!

After assembly, the synth doesn’t seem to start up.
I am completely new to DIY synths, so it’s quite possible that I messed up something!

The only signs of life my PreenFM3 currently shows are a lit green and orange LED on the mainboard.
I’m powering it via an Apple iPhone USB charger. I also tried a different USB charger with higher output. Same result.
The SD card, formatted to FAT32, contains the flash_bootloader.cmd and firmware files, plus their bin files.

There are some discrepancies between the current boards and the assembly instructions by Van Daal. A few times I had to scratch my head a little before continuing. My kit came with the 1.6 mainboard and 1.2 controlboard.

I’m listing the important discrepancies, in case I messed up there:

- Page 1 of the assembly instructions shows a 2pin header with jumper that needs to be connected to USB Ground. This is missing on the 1.6 mainboard, so I didn’t do anything with the extra provided 2pin and jumper.
- Page 3 shows a 'Solder Wire Jumper' that doesn’t seem to exist on the 1.2 controlboard.
- Page 3 gives instructions for the placement of an 'Isolator Washer.' I did not use the provided washer and could not identify any purpose for it with the current boards.
- Page 4 shows the TFT installation. My kit included various pin thingies, supposedly as alternative means to deal with the TFT as there would be no other use for all of these except to handle the TFT.

I would be very glad for any advice anyone on this forum can give!
Please have mercy, if I did something foolish!

Thanks,
Phil

[Xavier]

Hi,

I won't comment on the doc as Van Daal has their own building guide.

Orange Led : OK 5v
Green Led : OK 3.3v

You should see a blue led blinking.
If not that means the the firmware is not running.

Can you double check you have the Boot0 pin in the "preenfm3" position ?
The middle pin must be connected to the ground (GND).

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier,

Thanks for your reply!

No blue LED is lit or blinking.

Did I do the right thing to put the bootloader and firmware .cmd and .bin files in the root folder of the SD card? (I actually put copies of those files also in the pfm3 folder, just to be sure)

Please see the Boot0 pins in the attached photo, which I connected as described in Van Daal manual.

Thanks,
Phil

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier,

I actually misunderstood the flashing of the bootloader process.

I tried it with Chrome now but got an error message during the process:

"DFU GETSTATUS failed: ControlTransferIn failed: NetworkError: A transfer error has occurred."
"Done!"

I do get a blinking blue LED now. After switching the Boot0 pin jumper over to GND, the TFT display turns on all white but nothing else happens. The PreenFM software editor now recognizes the connected PreenFM3 and can pull a patch from the unit. But the display just stays all white.

Thanks for any help with this!
Phil

[Kyg]

Ouch, do I understand this correctly that the flashing of the bootloader will simply not work via browser on MacOS?
Is my only option the strange looking dfu-util?

Phil

[Xavier]

If you have the blue led flashing then the firmware is correctly flashed and the TFT should work.
Do you have the "TFT VCC" jumper set to 5v ?

[Kyg]

Interesting! The v1.6 mainboard has a slot for the TFT Vcc setting 5v vs 3.3v, but the assembly instructions didn’t do anything with it. Should I solder a dual pin in the 5v position and put a jumper on it? Photo is attached.

And to make sure I understand: You are saying that I can ignore the error message during the flashing of the bootloader process, because the blinking blue LED indicates that the flashing was successful, right?

Thanks for your help!
Phil

[Xavier]

Interesting! The v1.6 mainboard has a slot for the TFT Vcc setting 5v vs 3.3v, but the assembly instructions didn’t do anything with it. Should I solder a dual pin in the 5v position and put a jumper on it? Photo is attached.

I assume Van Daal did not update the Doc with the latest PCB modifications.
There were several iterations of the PCB.
You can read that :
https://github.com/Ixox/preenfm3/wiki/Build#what-are-all-those-jumpers-
Set it to 5v to power the TFT CPU.
(You won't need the 3.3v selection.)

And to make sure I understand: You are saying that I can ignore the error message during the flashing of the bootloader process, because the blinking blue LED indicates that the flashing was successful, right?

I don't know about the error message.
But the blue led blinking indicate the firmware is flashed as it's the firmware itself that makes this led blink.

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier!

It was the missing TFT VCC to 5v. Now the PreenFM3 starts up fine!

I’m getting a brief "SD card error #6#" after which everything looks fine.
Any idea what might be causing this error?

Thanks for your very valuable help!

Phil

[Xavier]

Error #6# means that the preenfm3 cannot read at all the sd card.

What you have to do :
. Make sure it's formated (https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/) and that it has the /pfm3/ folder with all the files inside
. double check the soldering of the top 4 pins of the TFT on both the TFT and on the main PCB
. Try to resolder with a tiny amount of soldering the SD card socket connections on the TFT PCB itself

https://github.com/Ixox/preenfm3/wiki/Build#tft
"If your SD card does not work, try first to resolder the SD card socket on the TFT PCB. This problem happened to several builders."

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier!

I had used the SD formatter.
Does it matter which name the SD card is given?

Could you please tell me which files should be in the root of the SD card and which should be in the /pfm3/ folder?

I put the same files in the root of the SD card and additionally also in the /pfm3/ folder:

flash_bootloader.cmd
flash_firmware.cmd
p3_0_107.bin
p3_boot_1_07.bin

These are the exact names of the extracted files from the zip file.
Is it possible that the difference _107.bin versus 1_07.bin is a typo in one of the files names?

In addition, I have a DX7 folder in the pfm3 folder with some sysex patch files.

Thanks,
Phil

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier!

I resoldered the SD card socket on the TFT board.

The SD card error has disappeared!

Thanks!!

Phil

[Kyg]

The PreenFM3 is running now.
But I’m having two problems:

I’m getting the same occasional white screen as another person here on the forum.
Following the advice in that thread, I set the TFT config to Auto Reinit, which may have helped a little, as the display seemed to become white sooner without the auto reinit. But the screen still goes white after a while (sometimes a long time) without coming back by itself. Pushing MENU plus - then brings the screen back. Other than that, I’m not getting any corrupted display characters, like the other person.

The second problem is that I’m not getting any audio from any of the output jacks. The synth receives MIDI and the mixer page shows an output signal, as does the oscilloscope on the edit pages. I set output to the various jacks and also set the volume on the mixer page. But I have zero audio signal on the output jacks. This is the case with the default sound, as well as with loaded patches. And I tested it with cables and a mixer that definitely work.

I found forum threads about no audio on PreenFM2 but find it difficult to apply the answers to the PreenFM3.

I’d be very glad for help with this!

Thanks,

Phil

[Xavier]

The TFT problem you have can come from noise in data signal.The TFT lost its state and needs to be reset to work again.
So you can first try another power supply (or power from USB to see) if there's a difference.

This problem has disapeared since i slowed down the frequency of the GPIO in the MCU to TFT connection.
So a preenfm3 TFT with a recent firmware should be very stable .

That can also comes from noises in the connections. Double check your TFT connection.

For the audio, that's really weird, can you share a good quality pictures of your PCB (both side) ?

[Kyg]

Hi Xavier!

I know now why I’m not getting any audio!

Remember that Van Daal hasn’t updated his assembly instructions to the latest board yet.
So I haven't installed the three DACs that are now on external boards, thinking those must just be some unneeded part!

I just saw your remark about the new DAC boards that need to be soldered in.

An adventure!

Phil