Save function not working on BBC micro:bit

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2016-03-19 by user63222

Hi Gordon,

Calling the save() function seems to crash my microbit. Is that function going to be supported soon?
(I'm using espruino_1v85.30_microbit.hex)

Thanks
David

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2016-03-19 by @gfwilliams

Does it work on the normal 1v85 version? It should be supported, in fact I used it on a build myself yesterday.

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Posted at 2016-03-20 by user63222

Nope it crashes my mb on that version too. Note: I'm sending commands over bluetooth and dump() and reset() work fine.

Sorry I put this post in the wrong category (News). Feel free to delete it.

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Posted at 2016-03-21 by @gfwilliams

I'll move the post... Can you see if it works fine when you type save() when connected over USB? It could be related to the bluetooth connection

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Posted at 2016-03-24 by user63222

I've not managed to get a connection over USB so far. How do you do it?

(The device never shows up when I click on the connect icon but normal Espruinos work fine)

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Posted at 2016-03-24 by @allObjects

How did you get a hold of a micro:bit?

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Posted at 2016-03-24 by user63222

I got them from the BBC. I'm the creator of DroidScript and a STEM ambassador, so I managed to get a couple early :) DroidScript has a free plugin for the micro:bit which can be used right now.

See here for instructions:- microbit-js.org

Microbits are going out to a million school kids starting this week, so the UK will be flooded with them soon. You will also be able officially to buy them at some point too.

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Posted at 2016-03-29 by @gfwilliams

What OS are you using? Windows? It looks like you need to install mbed's drivers - I should update the readme to include that.

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Posted at 2016-04-14 by user63222

Yep, Windows. Thanks, those drivers did the trick :)

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Posted at 2016-04-14 by user63222

OK, save() works over USB but not over BLE for me. Perhaps it is something to do with the save() function needing to wait for idle or something?

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by @gfwilliams

I'll take a look - what actually happens?

It could just be that when it resets, it moves the console back to Serial. What if you disconnect from BLE and reconnect - can you then access it again?

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by @gfwilliams

Just checked, and that seems to be the issue - I'll get a fix in for that now...

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by @gfwilliams

To check - are you using one of the 'latest' builds? Not 1v85?

It's looking like this might be related to the recent 'boot code' additions - even without BLE, saving twice seems to cause issues.

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by @gfwilliams

I just fixed some problems in the latest build, but there still seems to some big problem with writing to flash while BLE is connected...

So even E.setBootCode('console.log("Hello")') (which doesn't involve a restart) will fail when there is a BLE connection, even if done via the serial console :( Not sure what's up...

edit: in fact it appears to be something related to the chip - merely erasing a page of flash memory (which works fine when BLE is not connected) causes the device to reset when it is. I've contacted Nordic and hopefully I'll be able to find out what's happening soon.

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by user63222

OK, thanks for looking into this Gordon. This is pretty important for our plans with DroidScript.

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by @gfwilliams

A pretty big hack for now would be:

setTimeout("save()",1000);
// disconnect immediately
// wait 3 sec
// reconnect

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Posted at 2016-04-15 by user63222

Hi Gordon, actually that is one of the first things I tried, does that work for you on 1v85, because I could not get that working when I tried it.

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Posted at 2016-04-18 by @gfwilliams

It's fixed in the latest builds now (it might take a few minutes to update).

Turned out to be a bit of a nightmare - it was the Nordic code complaining, as it wants to make sure it doesn't turn the radio on while using flash memory - I guess because it draws too much power.

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Posted at 2016-04-18 by user63222

Great, thanks Gordon :)