Keybow mini hangs?

Hi there… i’ve got a keybow mini (3 keys) and works great but… at some random times… HANGS… STOPS…

At the beginning it wasnt even lit (i only used led colors on click), so, sometimes, not working… i changed to the animated LED rotation…

So now i know when the keybow hanged out… the animation just stops (same color, no movement), clicks dont work, nothing…

i used the latest https://github.com/pimoroni/keybow-firmware/releases/tag/v0.0.4 as required for keybow mini…

i already tried:
using other usb port
Using other usb cable
Using other SD (but this should not be a problem as the firmware loads into ram and it doesnt read anything again?)
changed a Pi Zero W to another Pi Zero (both works fine non stop on raspbian for other tasks)

i have a keybow (the 12 keys size) and i’ve NEVER seen it hang or stop working

but the mini hangs at least once a day… (when i see that the animation stopped, but for sure…EVERY day)

Never hangs while using, simply stops at some random point of the day…

kept keys_lua as simple as possible
require “keybow”
require “snippets/win_snippets”
require “layouts/mini-xtr”

Content for mini xtr
require “keybow”

– Keybow MINI –

function setup()
keybow.use_mini()
keybow.clear_lights()
keybow.auto_lights(true)
end

and then reused 3 keys from my other full size KEYBOW nothing fancy…

so… anyone using keybow mini sees this behaviour? or is there any way to debug this hangs? (i don’t see any log file on the SD card)

You can connect an external monitor and log in to a Keybow for debugging purposes- IIRC the login was “keybow/keybow” but it’s been a while since I’ve tinkered with one.

Since keybow is deliberately designed to be stable and stateless, it doesn’t output any log files.

I’ll set one up here and see if I can replicate your problem- granted it might take a while!

Edit: I’d guess your full-sized Keybow is running on the older software? I’ve got a suspicion it might be something introduced in the File/Serial IO that eventually breaks Keybow. Odds are it’s a memory leak.

Yeah i maintained the Full size keybow, on the 3 version instead (yeah i should upgrade to see if there’s the same beahaviour). i’ll add to my To-do, make a copy to another folder and get the same version there…

today was stopped again when returning from work… at least its predictable behaviour… that’s something :)

It’s been just over 24 hours and mine’s still ticking along- no change at all to memory usage. I’ll leave it running over the weekend to see if it freezes.

i’m tryingnow… keeping the computer on… once a day hangs… i let the computer hibernate during the night and dont powerup the computer on the morning… when i return from work… hanged already…

The only way it does not hangs… its to be PHYSICALLY disconnected UNTIL usage is required and then disconnect again… this scenario has 100% satisfaction (but none of the readily available to use and or pretty colors leds in the table) :)

Is it possible to be keybow defective instead of pi zero defective? tomorrow i’ll be getting the “default file” on the 0.0.4 files the one included as example, reformat the sd card, i dont know, the only way to make more tests is to buy more pi zeros, or another keybow mini :(

(i’m still pending upgrade the keybow full size to 0.0.4) (shitty week at work xD)

Thanks for trying to replicate with yours

Mine’s been running now for 4 days solid without issue.

It’s near impossible that the keybow itself is at fault, since it’s a dumb bit of hardware but stranger things have happened.

I’d recommend setting up a regular Raspbian SD card and running a stability test on your Pi Zero- not sure what the best way to do this is, but stressberry might be a good way to start: https://github.com/nschloe/stressberry

will do, thanks for your kind help

i’ve trying the keybow mini in another computer and it does not hangs… mmmmm

could there be any reason to “having 2 keybows” at the same time in the same computer… creates some kind of “driver conflict”? (yeah, i know this sounds SO LEGACY, like windows 98 or something xD)

I’m trying to see if there’s something “hibernation” related in the power settings for these device
or some kind of “low power” setting in the usb configuration