B0RD

Chapter 13

Troubleshooting

Most bring-up failures are power, Wi‑Fi association, or mode selection — not mysterious hardware faults. Work through the matching section below before swapping parts.

Blank or flickering panel

  • Confirm the product supply is seated and rated for the kit.
  • Reseat the panel interconnect with power disconnected, then power on again.
  • Lower brightness if the image collapses only at the highest levels.
  • If the module is alive over USB but the glass stays dark, treat it as a display-path fault and capture status before reflashing.

Cannot join SoftAP or open the portal

Forget the old B0RD-<suffix> network on your phone or laptop, rejoin, and confirm you received an address in the 192.168.4.xrange (not a link-local 169.254.x.x). Openhttp://192.168.4.1/ only after that address appears.

Cannot find the sign on the home LAN

  1. Confirm STA join succeeded (USB status or SoftAP Status).
  2. Read the DHCP address from that status — browse http://<ip>/.
  3. Use a device on the same network; avoid guest isolation.
  4. Try http://<hostname>.local/ from SoftAP Status / USBhostname= (same identity as SoftAP, lowercased). On some Windows hosts a trailing dot helps:http://b0rd-kitchen.local./. If multicast is blocked, use the numeric STA IP instead — seeNetworking.
  5. SoftAP at 192.168.4.1 remains a local fallback.

Wrong mode on the panel

Check the base preference: idle clock versus launch countdown. Shared-cycle timing can briefly show the clock even when countdown is the base — seePlaylist and scene timing. Notifications can also hide the scene you expected — clear any active overlay. After a fresh flash, units may boot into countdown until you choose the clock.

Clock is wrong or countdown shows absolute times

Countdown headers need a trustworthy wall clock. Until network time arrives (or you set time from the control plane), the board may show absolute NET labels instead of a live T‑minus string. Join home Wi‑Fi so outbound time and launch data can succeed, or set time manually over USB. SoftAP-only boards cannot reach network time — set an offset and time from USB / API.

No launch cards

  • Base mode must be launch countdown (or rotation that includes it).
  • Wall time should be set for live remaining-time headers.
  • Either a live fetch on home Wi‑Fi succeeded, or you injected a short list (demo seed is optional and not automatic).
  • Inspect launch status over USB for the last error and any backoff delay.

Factory reset

SoftAP More → Factory reset, or the USB factory-reset path (requires an explicit confirm). That clears Wi‑Fi credentials and preferences back to SoftAP-first defaults. Export a settings backup first if you care about non-secret keys. After reset, rejoin B0RD-<suffix>and run through First boot again.

If the enclosure exposes the physical control button: hold about three seconds until the panel shows FACTORY RESET, then keep holding through the countdown to confirm (release earlier to cancel). Short press advances the playlist or wakes the sign from eco sleep — useful when SoftAP or STA UI is unreachable.

Crash loop / safe-mode

After several abnormal resets the sign may boot in safe-mode: dim idle clock, SoftAP and USB still available, outbound launch/OTA traffic paused. Over USB run status panic to read the breadcrumb, fix configuration, then status clear and reboot.

Still stuck? USB control plane ·Settings reference ·Glossary ·Get started