If the BrickPi3 is not performing as expected, here are some things to try:
1. Is the BrickPi3 green LED on?
The green LED should be on when the BrickPi3 is powered on. If the green LED is not on, check the battery connections and make sure the power switch is in the “ON” position.
2. Take the Protective Foam Off the Pins
Be sure to take the foam off of the pins on the BrickPi3. The BrickPi3 is shipped with foam on the GPIO pins to prevent them from being bent. Be sure to remove them before proceeding to use your robot!
3. Check how fast the yellow LED is flashing.
If your yellow LED on the BrickPi3 is flashing:
- Once per second, the battery voltage is good (at least 7.2v).
- Twice per second, the battery voltage is adequate, but not great (less than 7.2v).
- Four times per second, the battery voltage is too low, and the motors are automatically disabled. Either the battery voltage is below 6v, or the battery voltage is below 6.8v and the 5v voltage is below 4.85v.
It’s safe to power the the Raspberry Pi directly with a good 5v power supply though the micro-USB power input, but the BrickPi3 motors will be disabled (everything else, including all sensors, should work the same as if you are running on batteries).
4. Run the troubleshooting script.
You can run the troubleshooting script from the desktop by double-clicking on the icon:
and then clicking “Troubleshoot BrickPi3”.
Open the log.txt file that gets created on the desktop, and look through to see if there’s anything unexpected. If you don’t find the problem, you can upload the log.txt file from the desktop to the forums and ask for help (please give a clear description of the problem you’re experiencing).
Ask For Help: Troubleshoot Common Issues With the BrickPi3
We welcome questions and are happy to help you with your BrickPi3 on our forums here.
