Acorn worked for years and suddenly stops
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2025 6:00 pm
Keith,
I have been a Beta tester on Acorn so I have used the board extensively. Life got in the way and I had not touched the machine for maybe three months. I turned it on and noticed there was no heartbeat. I checked the power supply it was at 24VDC. Two LEDs were on the BBG board but no heartbeat. I unplugged wires and same story. I decided it must have somehow got bricked so I downloaded the debricking software and followed the instructions and the four blue LEDs came on one at a time until all four were blue. I waited another 10 seconds, then let my finger off the button and unplugged the 5V power. I then reinstalled the BBG board on the Acorn motherboard. I then turned on the power and started CNC12 I could see a blue LED flash every couple seconds which they attempted to communicate. Nothing. The heartbeat was still not working correctly. The blue shielded ethernet cable works fine on the other ethernet port to the internet so I know the cable is good. I normally never leave this machine plugged into the internet. I read that Windows might have loaded the firewall and sure enough defender firewall was enabled, so I disabled that and tried again, still nothing.
I know there was no power surge or anything else, the only thing that has changed in the last two months is we got net internet service, but again this machine was not plugged into the internet. I also checked the static IP address is set to 10.168.41.1 so everything looks correct.
When I look at the ethernet cable connection on the back of the Windows10 PC, I do not see any LED indication like occurs when I check the other port with the internet.
When you debrick the BBG and plug it back into 5V supply after you complete the process should the heartbeat LED blink every second?
Looking for any advice available. Thanks
Russ
I have been a Beta tester on Acorn so I have used the board extensively. Life got in the way and I had not touched the machine for maybe three months. I turned it on and noticed there was no heartbeat. I checked the power supply it was at 24VDC. Two LEDs were on the BBG board but no heartbeat. I unplugged wires and same story. I decided it must have somehow got bricked so I downloaded the debricking software and followed the instructions and the four blue LEDs came on one at a time until all four were blue. I waited another 10 seconds, then let my finger off the button and unplugged the 5V power. I then reinstalled the BBG board on the Acorn motherboard. I then turned on the power and started CNC12 I could see a blue LED flash every couple seconds which they attempted to communicate. Nothing. The heartbeat was still not working correctly. The blue shielded ethernet cable works fine on the other ethernet port to the internet so I know the cable is good. I normally never leave this machine plugged into the internet. I read that Windows might have loaded the firewall and sure enough defender firewall was enabled, so I disabled that and tried again, still nothing.
I know there was no power surge or anything else, the only thing that has changed in the last two months is we got net internet service, but again this machine was not plugged into the internet. I also checked the static IP address is set to 10.168.41.1 so everything looks correct.
When I look at the ethernet cable connection on the back of the Windows10 PC, I do not see any LED indication like occurs when I check the other port with the internet.
When you debrick the BBG and plug it back into 5V supply after you complete the process should the heartbeat LED blink every second?
Looking for any advice available. Thanks
Russ