Error with camera and Python backend

[alexnordone]

Common error when first turning on the Planktoscope after building, there is no image produced and it states this message: "If you see this, there probably is an error either with your camera or with the python service. Please try restarting your machine." I have attached the Python hardware controller's logs. Please help!
control.zip

[ethanjli]

Thanks for uploading the logs! It looks like you're running a version of the software for PlanktoScope hardware v2.1 (which is based on the Adafruit Stepper Motor HAT). Just to confirm, is that the hardware version which you have assembled? Also, can you please note which version of the PlanktoScope OS you're running? The information should be listed in the "System Monitoring" page of the PlanktoScope's Node-RED dashboard, and it should look something like v2024.0.0.

The final log message I see in your logs (planktoscope.stepper:__init__:244 - Loading the adafruit configuration) corresponds to https://github.com/PlanktoScope/device-backend/blob/4961447e33bc7e114e67f87ad71f6b64cc7a3a59/control/adafruithat/planktoscope/stepper.py#L244. The next log message which we normally would expect to see is Stepper initialisation is over (corresponding to https://github.com/PlanktoScope/device-backend/blob/4961447e33bc7e114e67f87ad71f6b64cc7a3a59/control/adafruithat/planktoscope/stepper.py#L284C22-L284C52). This suggests that the Python hardware controller is failing when it is trying to initialize the stepper motor drivers. Based on my experience from troubleshooting #552, it seems likely to me that the code is raising an exception which isn't being captured in the log files (see #553), and then the hardware controller program quits. If I am correct about where the problem is happening, then I would recommend checking the connection between your Adafruit Stepper Motor HAT and your Raspberry Pi computer - for example, to ensure that the ribbon cable between the two boards is secure and is configured correctly (i.e. so that the layout of the pins isn't getting mirrored/flipped by the ribbon cable connectors). If you can upload some photos of the ribbon cable and the connection between your Adafruit HAT and your RPi, I can check whether your assembled PlanktoScope has any obvious differences from some PlanktoScopes with v2.1 hardware which I've assembled in the past.

[ethanjli]

Hmm ok, nothing looks obviously wrong with the ribbon cable in your photos. I think it will be helpful for us to see if the Python hardware controller might have printed any useful error messages which didn't get saved to the log files. Assuming you access the PlanktoScope's web browser interface via http://planktoscope.local, can you please open http://planktoscope.local/admin/cockpit/system/logs#/?prio=debug&service=planktoscope-org.device-backend.controller-adafruithat.service and take screenshots what you see on there? (if it has many messages to scroll through, please take screenshots of the first several pages of scrolling)

[alexnordone]

I have never been able to connect using that link, for some reason the only one that lets me connect to it is "http://192.168.4.1/". In the planktoscope browser I went to the admin tab and the link for 'live updating logs" under hardware controller seems to be the same link as the one you sent.

However when I click on the link it brings me to the following page where I am unable to login.

Side note: I greatly appreciate all of the help so far, and I am also open to meet using zoom if that is something that you would be able to do in the near future to solve this issue.

[ethanjli]

Ok! Yes, you can log in there using username pi and password copepode.

If you're on the PlanktoScope Slack workspace, feel free to DM me there (@ Ethan Li) and we can arrange a Zoom meeting

[alexnordone]

Here are screen shots of the first few pages of messages, let me know if you would like me to click into any specific one!

[ethanjli]

Hmm ok, this confirms that the software isn't able to locate the chip on the Adafruit Stepper Motor HAT which controls the motors. This is most likely some kind of hardware problem. I would suggest checking if we can rule out the GPS HAT as a potential cause of the problem, by temporarily removing it and instead connecting the ribbon cable directly to the Adafruit Stepper Motor HAT. If the stepper motor HAT is able to plug in directly to the Raspberry Pi (maybe with the cooling fan HAT on top of the stepper motor HAT), that could also be a way to see if we can rule out the 40-pin ribbon cable (or the boards' connections with that cable) as a potential cause of the problem.