I have a 12 button Keybow mainly for using as various text macros for work. I sometimes find that after 5 days or so the buttons stop responding. I also notice that the lights are still active but don’t blink as they used to. If I unplug the USB cable and re-insert it the Keybow will start working again.
I’ve had the Keybow plugged into various USB ports on both the rear of my computer and on the front case ports and the same issue persists.
The Keybow works OK and when I just unplugged it it restarted and Windows made its usual USB device connection sound. Is there something about the Keybow that requires a frequent restart? Could I possibly add a script to my Keybow to restart every few days to avoid me having to unplug the USB cable?
I put my computer into sleep mode at the end of the day (10pm). I’m pretty sure I can sleep my computer at the end of the day and the Keybow works fine the next. I have previously made sure that the USB port I was using didn’t get turned off to save power. I will sleep my computer later on today and then wake it back up and see how the Keybow functions to confirm my belief that sleeping the computer doesn’t cause this.
Also check the Windows event-log and the device manager. Theoretically, I see two problems: Windows has one with keeping the USB-HID information. Or the firmware on the keybow has some sort of (memory-leak?) problem that makes it stop after a while.
Of course you can force an automatic reset in the firmware after a predefined time (if you are happy to edit the firmware). But the keybow also has a reset key. So this is what I would try first before the unplug/replug cycle you describe.
Where is the reset key? I’ve had a good look and I can see anything obvious. Would love to use this if there is one as the cable is a bit fiddly to unplug and re-insert.
Sorry, I assumed you were using the 2040 version which led me to the possible sleep issue. The Pi Zero version appears to run a version of Raspbian linux and doesn’t seem to have a reset button.
I did notice the following closed issue on the keybow os github site which might provide some clues:
Sorry for any confusion. I wasn’t aware there were other kinds of Keybow using something other than a Pi Zero W.
I had a 32GB Sandisk microSD card which when I plugged it into an adapter on my computer prompted a message from Windows saying there was an issue. I copied the Keybow OS files to a 16GB Sandisk microSD card and then copied the other files over and it is working now without any messages on being connected to my computer. I’ll see how the Keybow behaves over the next few days and see if things are better. Thanks for the Github link. Wouldn’t have thought to check for threads there.
OK so I used a new microSD card and things were OK but then after the usual amount of time the Keybow stopped responding and required a restart. The LEDs stop animating but I don’t know if this is a symptom of the issue or the cause. Is there anything else I can try to see if it helps fix this issue?
