# Dock lights flashing right to left

**URL:** <https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843>\
**Category:** Flotilla\
**Created:** [February 20, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843 "2016-02-20T22:56:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mhz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mhz](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/mhz)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/1 "2016-02-20T22:56:45Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’ve had my Flotilla for a couple of weeks now, and tried to play with it a few times with no luck.

When I plug the dock into the Pi I get the three lights on the top flash in sequence from right to left continuously, and can’t get any modules to show in Rockpool when I plug them in.

Can anyone give me any pointers?

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**Author:** ![gadgetoid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/gadgetoid/32/13_2.png) [@gadgetoid](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/gadgetoid)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 9:50am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/2 "2016-02-21T09:50:24Z")

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It sounds like your dock is stuck in bootloader mode, you should grab the pre-release repository from here and run “./update\_firmware” in the Raspi folder.

> **[pimoroni/flotilla-pre](https://github.com/pimoroni/flotilla-pre)**
>
> flotilla-pre - Pre-release Flotilla software for pioneering pirates. Not for the faint of heart! You have been warned!

Hopefully that’ll put it on the straight and narrow!

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**Author:** ![mhz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mhz](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/mhz)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/3 "2016-02-27T18:13:32Z")

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**Thanks for the help. I tried what you suggested and got a a message that I needed to fun it as root**

`pi@raspberrypi:~/flotilla-pre/raspi/\> firmware $ ./update\_firmware

Install must be run as root. Try ‘sudo ./’`

**So I tried it with sudo anf got an error message saying I need to force it**

`pi@raspberrypi:~/flotilla-pre/raspi/firmware $ sudo ./update\_firmware

Flotilla Firmware Updater  
dock firmware file found

ImportError: No module named flotilla  
The flotilla Python API is not installed.  
This is not essential to update the firmware  
but should you wish to you can install it using:  
\curl -sS [get.pimoroni.com/flotilla](http://get.pimoroni.com/flotilla) | bash

Plug in your Flotilla Dock now.  
Updating should continue automatically.

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 03eb:2fe4 Atmel Corp. ATxmega32A4U DFU bootloader  
Erasing flash… Success  
The target memory for the program is not blank.  
Use --force flag to override this error check.

Dock Firmware Update completed  
Please unplug/replug your Flotilla Dock before use!`

**So I tries it with --force and still got errors**

`pi@raspberrypi:~/flotilla-pre/raspi/firmware $ sudo ./update\_firmware --force

Flotilla Firmware Updater  
dock firmware file found

ImportError: No module named flotilla  
The flotilla Python API is not installed.  
This is not essential to update the firmware  
but should you wish to you can install it using:  
\curl -sS [get.pimoroni.com/flotilla](http://get.pimoroni.com/flotilla) | bash

Plug in your Flotilla Dock now.  
Updating should continue automatically.

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 03eb:2fe4 Atmel Corp. ATxmega32A4U DFU bootloader  
Checking memory from 0x0 to 0x7FFF… ERROR.  
Erasing flash… Success  
Checking memory from 0x0 to 0x7FFF… ERROR.  
The target memory for the program is not blank.  
Use --force flag to override this error check.

Dock Firmware Update completed  
Please unplug/replug your Flotilla Dock before use!`

**I’m not sure what to do from here.**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RogueM](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/roguem/32/311_2.png) [@RogueM](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/RogueM)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/4 "2016-02-27T21:21:55Z")

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hum, yeah, something is blocking writing the firmware… was it that way since you first got it?

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**Author:** ![mhz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mhz](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/mhz)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/5 "2016-02-27T22:32:46Z")

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When I first got it I didn’t have the flashing lights from right to left but I have never gotten it to work, when I first tried to use it no inputs or outputs would show in Rockpool so I tried reinstalling raspbian and starting again from scratch thinking I had installed something wrong, but still had no luck getting anything to show. I tried stopping and starting the flotilla daemon and noticed it had issues connecting with the dock, it looked like it could see it but not communicate with it, so I tried running the daemon as root and it managed to connect to it, I loaded up Rockpool and plugged in the matrix and it showed on screen for a second but when I clicked on it the whole thing froze. After restarting the Pi the lights on the Dock started flashing.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gadgetoid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/gadgetoid/32/13_2.png) [@gadgetoid](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/gadgetoid)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/dock-lights-flashing-right-to-left/1843/6 "2016-02-29T13:04:36Z")

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There’s definitely something amiss here. I’d recommend getting in touch with us at [support@pimoroni.com](mailto:support@pimoroni.com) for a replacement Dock. It may also be useful to recover yours for diagnostics!

Sorry you appear to have got a dud :( But we’ll have you Flotilla’ing as soon as we can!
