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Possible Hardware Fault in the Mk.V?


gfudge

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Over the past ~48 hours I've been trying to get my pineapple to work. I seem to be having a very unusual (read: undocumented) error with this device, with the symptoms below:

- Firstly, it tends to boot into what I have termed 'derp mode' where it gets stuck in a boot loop. This is usually characterized by solid green and faint-ish blue and VERY faint red LEDs.

- Secondly, I have managed to get the device to boot/operate for a limited time (more detail later).

- I noticed that it would enter derp mode if I rebooted it (i.e. power cycled) immediately. If I let it wait for ~5-10 minutes, it would actually run through the boot cycle.

Now for a brief description of Derp Mode:

- The device will not enter any form of boot cycle, just the immediate aformentioned LEDs. To me this indicates that the kernel isn't even getting hooked by the bootloader, if the bootloader (I assume RedBoot) is even getting loaded.

- Derp mode will hold indefinitely, and has done so for several hours. During this time, it will not change state in any way.

- As previously mentioned, rebooting immediately will not alleviate this problem in any way.

Last night, the problem was somewhat mitigated by keeping the device cool (it's not getting especially warm). This allowed a successful unbricking and boot. The device works perfectly when cooled, however, this is not a practical use for it.

As I am sure many people will offer the obligatory 'RTFM' comment, here is a concise list of common fixed that have been applied:

- Standard factory reset

- Standard (web facing) un-bricking (reflashing)

- Power supply testing

- Serial console debugging

In summary:

The device does work when exposed to colder temperatures; All normal operations function well in this state. To me, this indicates a potential manufacturing fault within the hardware.

I will be contacting HakShop shortly regarding this, however, I am curious if anybody else has had a similar issue. I would really like to take the device apart and have a look at it, and maybe test it in the lab to try and get to the root of the problem, however, I do not wish to do so before getting in contact with the HakShop staff.

Let me know what you think.

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I can say that the normal boot time I experience is 4-5 minutes for everything to come up properly so that isn't surprising. Wouldn't Blue and Red mean that wlan0 and wlan1 are active/or are trying to startup that Pineapple AP and connect via Client Mode? I've never seen what you call "derp" mode that I know of...

As for heat, I have noticed that I should not put the vent side of the case facing down and especially not down on a carpet. I tend to turn the antennas at an angle and set it on the short edge opposite of the side with power, eth0 and usb. That tends to help with heat issues. That is all the effort I put into heat management. They're selling cases these things can go into that don't look like they vent very well so I can only assume the heat shouldn't be a real issue.

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