Non-deterministic startup/bootup

mafish

The Up2 6000 (x6425RE) I am using in my project has trouble to turn on properly.
The Up2 is turned by external microcontroller, by RECOM 12V 5A isolated power supply.

By default the startup sequence is that the MCU turns the 12V bus on, and waits for 50s for Up2 to boot up and communicate with it (systemd-analyze shows startup time of 34s to userspace and this is true when measured while rebooting).

This sometimes works but Up2 does not always startup properly. Sometimes it takes >90s to boot up, and sometimes it does not turn on all (blue LED next to power socket stays off). I can see that te voltage is supplied ( I do have indicator LED, and voltage measurement on Up2's 5V bus), but the board itself remains dark. The monitor connected to the board, turns on for a second and then goes to standby (indicating that 'something' triggering HDMI is happending).

I haven't noticed this when powering the Up2 for a regular ACDC power supply. Below there is a oscillogram of 12V bus when powering on:
As you can see the voltage rise time is ~10ms to 12V, which is rather long.

If anyone has any clue why the board does not turn on i would be thankfull for sharing.

mafish

Hi Wilbert, thanks for the reply.

I've changed now changed Power Supply mode to AT (from ATX) in the Up2 BIOS.
It seems my problem is no more.

mafish

As the issiue was quite annoying in the past weeks I've been searching for solution trying different mods in bios and in hardware.
**Finally I think i have found a working solution for my scenario - I've set bios to default settings and REMOVED a jumper next to the power button. **
In my case I only power up/down by enabling/disabling power to the board, so the button has no use for me. This has been working reliably in past few weeks, going through dozens of power cycles without fail.

Wilbert

Hi Sir,

Please make sure your power supply is in good condition.
If you think there is any problem with the motherboard, it is recommended to request a repair service to confirm whether there is a problem with the MB.
I have tested here, even if the power supply is ramped up very slowly (0->12V took about 1 seconds), the motherboard can still boot normally. Please check if your external device is affecting the UP2 6000.

Best Regards,
Wilbert Lee.

Wilbert

Hi Sir,

Glad to be able to solve your problem, thank you for your question.
Next time I will suggest related options for users to clarify similar issues.

Best Regards,
Wilbert Lee.

mafish

I need to bring this topic back up, as the problem persists.
Although after swapping supply mode, the board usually turns on as I would expect, after some shutdowns it just refuses to power on.

I've just observed this behaviour:
1. I've shutdown Up2 via sudo shutdown now command.
2. I've initiated power down sequence on the robot (takes 10s)
3. Power was cut of from the Up2.
4. 30s wait time
5. Power on, the 12V IS supplied to Up2 but it doesnt boot up (no blue power LED)

To turn the computer on, I've to disconnect 12V power, remove BIOS battery, wait for 15 minutes, plug in the battery and plug in 12V power and press the power button. After that the board boots up. This seems to be a bug in the BIOS firmware. Maybe it locks on some undervoltage/brownout condition?

Wilbert

Hi Sir,

Can you help me confirm, after the RTC battery is unplugged, measure the voltage of the RTC, how much voltage is there?

Best Regards,
Wilbert Lee.

mafish

The RTC battery voltage is 3.039V. It has 2022-MAR markings on it.

Wilbert

Hi Sir,

May I ask how many MB you bought? Will the same issue occur in all of them?
Can you test the power supply alone and remove all other external factors?To put it simply, if you use a general Adapter to directly supply power to UP2, will it start abnormally?
This is the first time we have encountered a similar situation, and I have also tried to replicate this problem simultaneously, but I still cannot reproduce the issue on my side.
The current phenomenon can only be judged as an individual case. In this case, only send it to RMA to confirm the problem.
Before doing so, I would like to assist in clarifying any other possible factors.

Best Regards,
Wilbert Lee.

mafish

I only have one Up2 6000. I've managed to identify a possible cause of the issuie.
This seems to be related to slow startup of my 12V power supply. As I've showed in the 1st post, the voltage rise time from 0 to 12V is ~10 ms.
I've conducted a set of experiments and the boaard is starting more often when I use a switch on 12V bus, and turn the supply to the Up2 after the voltage is stable.
Still, once per 7-10 power cycles it goes to this "unstartable" state, and the only thing that helps is to remove RTC battery and wait 15 minutes. As deep restart (RTC battery removal) of the onboard electronics is the only thing that helps, I deeply belive this is some error related to Firmware/Bios of the board.

Wilbert

Hi Sir,

The lowest start-up voltage I tested here is 9.2V, so I used 9.5V to do several power-on and power-off tests. Even at 9.5V, the power-on and power-on can boot normally after more than 500 times, and there is no obvious problem of slow power-on.
(The test here is to use an external Counter, set the switching time, and when the time is up, the power will be cut off/supplied. If there is any slow startup, the counter times will be inconsistent with the host times, and this will be used as a judgment standard)

Best Regards,
Wilbert Lee.