| General information about the pyboard |
| ===================================== |
| |
| Local filesystem and SD card |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| There is a small internal filesystem (a drive) on the pyboard, called ``/flash``, |
| which is stored within the microcontroller's flash memory. If a micro SD card |
| is inserted into the slot, it is available as ``/sd``. |
| |
| When the pyboard boots up, it needs to choose a filesystem to boot from. If |
| there is no SD card, then it uses the internal filesystem ``/flash`` as the boot |
| filesystem, otherwise, it uses the SD card ``/sd``. |
| |
| (Note that on older versions of the board, ``/flash`` is called ``0:/`` and ``/sd`` |
| is called ``1:/``). |
| |
| The boot filesystem is used for 2 things: it is the filesystem from which |
| the ``boot.py`` and ``main.py`` files are searched for, and it is the filesystem |
| which is made available on your PC over the USB cable. |
| |
| The filesystem will be available as a USB flash drive on your PC. You can |
| save files to the drive, and edit ``boot.py`` and ``main.py``. |
| |
| *Remember to eject (on Linux, unmount) the USB drive before you reset your |
| pyboard.* |
| |
| Boot modes |
| ---------- |
| |
| If you power up normally, or press the reset button, the pyboard will boot |
| into standard mode: the ``boot.py`` file will be executed first, then the |
| USB will be configured, then ``main.py`` will run. |
| |
| You can override this boot sequence by holding down the user switch as |
| the board is booting up. Hold down user switch and press reset, and then |
| as you continue to hold the user switch, the LEDs will count in binary. |
| When the LEDs have reached the mode you want, let go of the user switch, |
| the LEDs for the selected mode will flash quickly, and the board will boot. |
| |
| The modes are: |
| |
| 1. Green LED only, *standard boot*: run ``boot.py`` then ``main.py``. |
| 2. Orange LED only, *safe boot*: don't run any scripts on boot-up. |
| 3. Green and orange LED together, *filesystem reset*: resets the flash |
| filesystem to its factory state, then boots in safe mode. |
| |
| If your filesystem becomes corrupt, boot into mode 3 to fix it. |
| If resetting the filesystem while plugged into your compute doesn't work, |
| you can try doing the same procedure while the board is plugged into a USB |
| charger, or other USB power supply without data connection. |
| |
| Errors: flashing LEDs |
| --------------------- |
| |
| There are currently 2 kinds of errors that you might see: |
| |
| 1. If the red and green LEDs flash alternatively, then a Python script |
| (eg ``main.py``) has an error. Use the REPL to debug it. |
| 2. If all 4 LEDs cycle on and off slowly, then there was a hard fault. |
| This cannot be recovered from and you need to do a hard reset. |
| |