Keybow not working - no sign of life at all

Support
1

Hi, I’ve just set up my keybow kit (12 key) which I used my birthdaydraw winning to purchase but I have no luck getting it to start. I’ve tried the supplied usb cable plugged into my desktop PC, an official pi power supply and another usb power supply and cable and none of them shows any activity at all. No lights on the Pi Zero come on nor any lights on the keys. I suspect the included Pi Zero may be DOA. Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks,

Dan

2

A bit of a PITA, but take the Pi out of the case and see if it works. The USB plug just may not be seating all the way in. If thats the case (pun not intended) if may be just some adjustment when putting it back together. Also make sure you plugging into the Data port when in keybow mode. The Pi will power up via either port. You just won’t get the gadget mode if powered via the power port.

3

Thanks. I’ve got it working. After taking it all apart with no luck, trying a different sd card and then working sdcards from some some of my other zeros which are ok, process of elimination led me to the answer. I had copied the whole downloaded keybow firmware zip contents to my sdcard rather than just the contents of the sdcard folder. Doh! It’s now working great! Must read instructions more carefully in future… I now also know that if the sdcard contents are wrong the zero shows no signs of life at all. I thought the green light would come on to show it had power. Might be worth drawing people’s attention to that in instructions for this in case anyone else is as dozy as me - manually copying files to the sd card has more chance of ballsing it up like I did. I’ve never bumped into this before despite have several other pi zero projects because they all involve writing an image to the card.

Anyway, here’s 3.1415926536 typed on my Keybow!

Many thanks.

4

Ah, nice to hear you got it sorted. I do believe the Pi Zero is the only Pi with just the one Green ACT LED. Every other Pi has, far as I know also has the RED Power LED. All the Models I have on hand anyway. Other than I guess the compute module, which I don’t think has any LED onboard?
Anyway, enjoy. =)