BeagleBone For Dummies

Appendix A

Troubleshooting

One frustrating thing about electronics and computation is that quite often, things don’t work as they should. You find yourself angrily asking “Why?!”, and you may even blame the BeagleBone for not doing what you asked it to.

Then you find the source of the issue, and you bring your palm to your face when you realize how simple the mistake was. You may even apologize to your computer for having unjustly accused it of causing the problem.

This appendix describes some common issues and explains how to solve them, and it provides a few tips and tricks on how to tackle problems that aren’t included in these pages. We hope there won’t be many!

Common Sources of Errors

This section presents a few typical mistakes that even the most experienced programmers and electronics enthusiasts often experience.

Issue:

The BeagleBone doesn’t power on. Its built-in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) aren’t lighting up.

Possible causes:

• Not enough power or faulty USB cable/USB port. This may happen if you have too many peripherals connected to the BeagleBone and you’re feeding it through a USB cable.
• You have a short circuit somewhere in your external wiring. A short circuit causes the board to shut down to prevent any further damage — but a short circuit always does some harm.

Solutions:

• Disconnect some peripherals; try a different USB cable or a different USB port. If these remedies fail, connect an external DC power source that can provide more current than a USB cable ...