Please include the following information, in order for us to help you as effectively as possible.
What product do you wish to discuss RAK4631 Meshtastic Starter Kit - New unit
What firmware are you using? RUI3?
What firmware version?
Computer OS? Both MacOS and Windows
Hi, many apologies upfront for my lack of knowledge but I’ll do my best. I’m here because I cannot find my issue anywhere else and got no feedback on Reddit regarding a solution.
New Meshtastic starter kit RAK4631 arrived and I have been unable to update to new firmware. I connect it to both Mac and PC (I’ve tried multiple computers and cables), the unit powers on and the computer detects the device. Issue is that it does not appear in the drivers tab. I double press the reset and still nothing. I am unable do drag updated firmware in as a result.
Red led is illuminated and green is flashing about once per second, this never changes even when I double press the reset button.
The device is visible when I open “Devices and Printers” It just won’t show up as a Drive for me to access its folders.
I have been through the quick start guide. Seeing as it’s the Meshtastic starter kit it appears to be fairly straightforward regarding set up. Unfortunately I’m not about to complete the initial set up due to it not appearing in the drivers when connecting to a PC.
I’m not currently creating any firmware. I’m simply just trying to get the initial Meshtastic firmware update installed from their site as part of the initial set up.
Unfortunately though I am unable to do this because the Rak4631 is not appearing as a drive when I connect it to the computer. I perform step 3 but nothing happens. Someone said I may need to reinstall the bootloader but I’m unsure.
The LED indicators shows that you have a Meshtastic firmware, where you able to connect to your device via mobile app, webclient or CLI?
If not, can you share a screenshot of device manager for me to see the port being detected?
Don’t you see any unusually damage or burnt marks on the board? Also, if you are capable, will you be able to measure the current consumption and voltage levels of your board?
Hi thank you,
Yes so when it is powered up the device is visible in the Meshtastic app via Bluetooth but I’m unable to connect because the firmware needs to be updated first.
The device looks to be in good condition and I see no burnt out components.
Well Lora via Meshtastic is a new hobby I’ve gotten into. I’ve never interacted with arduino before and this set up from RAK comes pre-assembled and programmed to work with Meshtastic. It’s considered the best unit for this so it was an easy choice in my opinion.
Yes. But it will not show up as a driver on the PC, double pressing the reset button does nothing. Please see the photo in the first post. As a result I’m not able to update the Meshtastic firmware. And I’m also not able to connect to it via Bluetooth because the firmware the product is shipped with is so out of date.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this? Thats what I’ve been explaining with this post. The PC detects the device but there is no way to get it to appear as a driver. As a result there is no way for me to update the firmware.
Thank you for your patience. This confirms that you have Meshtastic FW working.
With regards to device not going to DFU. It can be that the reset button is not working. Will you be able to test it? Possible way is if you press and hold it, the LED should be out. If the reset is working, this is a strange issue which can probably get fixed if the bootloader is updated via external tool like Jlink or RAKDAP1 (since USB is not working).
Hi there, I just received the 4x RAK4631 + RAK19003 I ordered and it appears that I am having the same problem with 2x of the devices where the reset button does not function and I cannot get those units to show up as drives on my PC to then install the meshtastic firmware. Is there a way to fix this hardware or will you just send 2x replacement units with working reset buttons?
No I was unable to resolve the issue unfortunately. I was given this link to flash to unit, it was just more technical than I was able to take on.
Beegee - The issue is that the until will not enter DFU mode when double pressing the reset button. It will show up as connected to a COM port on the PC but there is just no way to get the update file on it. And since the ship with such an outdated firmware you can’t connect via Bluetooth.
Hi Bernd, yes, it did should up as a COM port on Windows, but never a drive. However, I was able to find a workaround that appears to have worked to install the meshtastic firmware, though some errors were thrown during the install the process so am not completely sure it’s “perfectly” installed. The Reset button still does not function, but I am able to send messages, etc. within the Meshtastic ecosystem. My method for getting Meshtastic working was to plug in the RAK into my PC via USB, then I used the Nordic DFU iOS to attempt to install the meshtastic frimware zip which failed, but during the failure it put the RAK into the (boot?) mode where it could be seen as a drive on my PC. From there I followed the drag-and-drop procedure moving the Meshtastic firmware onto that drive. It installed (something) but threw an error at the end of the install. But the RAK appears to be working with meshtastic normally. I still would like to have units with working Reset buttons.
No, the reset button doesn’t seem to do anything. I tried mixing and matching the modules and baseboards I have on hand and it appears that all the modules are functioning normally, it’s just the 2x baseboards that have a faulty reset switch (or whatever the actual root-cause is).
Can you make a close-up (macro) picture of the reset button on the two boards.
The Reset line in the nRF52 is “hard-reset” (still can be changed to an GPIO, but bootloader doesn’t do that).
It is pointing to a problem with the button itself. Maybe a bad solder point or damaged button.
