Taranis will not go beyond splash screen

Tsukee · Post by **Tsukee** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 3:39 pm

My taranis suddenly stopped working (did not change anything), it hangs on the splash screen and does not respond to any input. I have tried to upgrade the firmware, it was succesfull, however the problem remains. I am able to get into bootloader screen and everything it just doesnt boot normaly.

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 4:31 pm

Try boot with the sdcard unplugged.

You may gave a bad disk.

Tsukee · Post by **Tsukee** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:52 pm

Tried to boot with sd card unplugged does not help, I have also checked (read on some other thread) that buttons are ok because opentx waits for "no button pressed". Buttons work normally in in bootloader and I have also checked them with multimeter. Additionally power switch does not respond after start (it turns on but not off).

Tsukee · Post by **Tsukee** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:09 am

So I somehow got it to work (for now). And I have no idea how. Here are the things I did:
Dissembled the TX (to check if buttons work ok), and than reassembled it (right before asembling the TX was still inoperative)
than I started to fiddle with opentx source to find out exactly where it hangs. I have used AUDIO_INACTIVITY() to mark the point to where the execution reached. First I have put it after doSplash(); in opentxStart() and it did not play. Than I've put it after it and the tx played it AND BOOTED. I doubt my changes affected the problem and I believe it will happen again. My findings tell me that something happened in the doSplash method after the AUDIO_TADA();. Maybe some check failed? So If anyone has any insight on why this happend I would really be glad to know so I can fix the problem the next time that it occurs and for others that might have the same problem.

EDIT: One possible thing that might have caused the problem, something very silly of me, is that the battery was discharged or bellow nominal voltage (When i last used it was just above the alarm and than I left it off for few days) and I think there is something related to voltage in the doSplash() method that prevented the taranis to boot up. During my testing i have not charged the battery (but was plugged into USB few times) but that to my knowledge should not have charged it. Anyway if this was perhaps the case than openTX handles it very very badly, as it just froze in the splash screen (with backlight on I might add).

Post by **ShowMaster** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 4:48 pm

What was the discharge voltage you were working with? The Taranis uses 3.3v and the regulator is a switcher with I believe a low headroom requirement. I would think you're good down to 4 volts? That is unless the the surge requirement after the sign on screen browns the voltage below the regulators working range or below 3.3v?
Somewhere the audio announcement could happen drawing a lot of current from an already low battery supply? Try powering your Taranis with one lipo cell and see what it does?

Finally, have you personally done any internal mods to your Taranis you should mention? I have to ask as that can be a game changer overlooked.

Tsukee · Post by **Tsukee** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 6:45 pm

No mods whatsoever, the first time I opened it was this time after the problem. Before I did not even upgrade the firmware. The voltage i reached was i think below 6v (5.9?). My first suspect is that there is/was something with the hardware(short due to malfunctioning component, busted capacitor,...?) , but no idea why so suddenly after a year and what could be the problem. The past 2 days is working normally. A weird experience

I do not have at my hand any 1s lipo, but is a good idea I might try but because its working now, I do not wanna fiddle around that much

Also about my comment on the sorce, I did not inspect the opentx code further so I do not know the details of operation is just my random guessing

Post by **ShowMaster** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 3:12 pm

Sorry, no new ideas? It's possible that some connector wasn't fully seated at the factory and you've corrected that now? It would seem that you'll just have to wait and see at this point. If it's still in warranty maybe you can get a new board set sent to you?

Tsukee · Post by **Tsukee** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 4:02 pm

I asked about warranty, but thing is it will be 1year in 2 days

No new ideas on what could be the problem, all are just educated guesses. When I opened it to check buttons, I also tried to disconnect switches and pots and sticks and transmitter (they are attached to the main board with nice connectors), but nothing changed and even after I reatached and resembled nothing changed. Only after last firmware update (with my insertion of audio notification before doSplash()) the thing booted. Since then i have not tried anything because it works.

Post by **bertrand35** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:13 pm

Which is the exact change you did in the code to make things work, just call AUDIO_INACTIVITY() just before doSplash() ?

rayzerfpv · Post by **rayzerfpv** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:57 am

just had my taranis radio do exact same thing, running standard out of the box files/setup. all working fine for a period of time, then I get the OPEN TX startup with voice, then it freezes, power switch does not work, having to disconnect battery. Did anyone find a solution t getting the radio working again?? please help, on holiday at mo and not having the radio is causing me some frustrations!!!

Post by **Kilrah** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:28 am

You can try removing the microSD card.

rayzerfpv · Post by **rayzerfpv** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:32 am

did that and no change, however after leaving things for a day, i tried connecting the radio via usb to computer, the bootloader driver on windows 8 machine loaded and then for some reason disconnected then radio from usb connection and turned switch on and ALL BOOTED AND WORKED AS NORMAL. any ideas what this could be?

martinmccurley · Post by **martinmccurley** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:59 pm

Go to open tx and follow the "clearing a bricked taranis" guide by Scott Page.The most important tip is removing the battery while you reset the radio.

Post by **Kilrah** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:26 pm

That post is more than 2 years old. Look at dates before posting.

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