Disconnecting batteries solved reset issue

[Zetaphor]

For some time now across firmware versions I have been having an issue where once a day my keyboard would completely lock up and reboot, after which my left side was unsusable. The only solution was to disconnect USB, disconnect the bridge cable, reset both halves, and then reconnect everything.

Unrelated to this I decided to disconnect the batteries in the keyboard as I always use it connected over USB. Interestingly once I did that the daily reset issue has gone away completley. Now the only issue I am encountering is the very occasional key repeat, but it seems to be isolated to the left click of my key cluster, and fairly infrequently. I haven't had any other inputs show the repeating issue.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but the charging information on the OLED would regularly flip back and forth between showing both sides and only showing the right side.

This can probably be closed, I just wanted to get this documented as it may contain some useful signals.

I am currently running firmware 12.3.3, but this has been an issue pretty much since the first weeks with the prototype board, until I finally disconnected the batteries.

[mondalaci]

Do you occasionally disconnect your UHK 80 via USB? If so, on such occasions, the UHK 80 gets power-cycled without the batteries, unlike with batteries, resetting firmware state, which may cause the different behavior.

[pcooke9]

I disconnected the batteries about a week or so ago. I've had the board freeze a couple of times since then, but nowhere near as often as when I had the batteries connected. My UHK80 only really gets power cycled when I shut down the PC for the night or reboot, etc..

I still have the lag/garbled output if the board resets (either intentionally or otherwise), but it doesn't happen very often anymore. But Idk if that's from unplugging the batteries, or firmware v12.3.3.

I guess I'll reconnect them for a while to see if there's a difference.

[Zetaphor]

I disconnected the batteries about a week or so ago. I've had the board freeze a couple of times since then, but nowhere near as often as when I had the batteries connected. My UHK80 only really gets power cycled when I shut down the PC for the night or reboot, etc..

Same here, the power is cut off when I shut down the PC, where before the board was staying powered at all times thanks to the batteries. And like @pcooke9 I am seeing significantly less issues as a result. I think I've had to pull the power to reset it once since I made this change, where I was having to do a full reboot/reset at least once every day with the batteries connected.

[mondalaci]

I don't think a shutdown or reboot power-cycles USB devices, but only cutting power. That is, unplugging and replugging them.

It'd be useful to know what triggers these issues. My guess is sleep-wake events and/or wireless connections (BLE and dongles). This is critical information; without it, we can't reproduce these issues.

[Zetaphor]

In the situations where I would experience the random lockup requiring a reset I would be in the middle of an hours long session of actively using the keyboard, it was nowhere near the point in which the keyboard had been asleep.

I also don't have the dongle connected and have never connected it to bluetooth.

[pcooke9]

I'm unsure what triggers it.
I'm also usually actively using the UHK80 around the time it freezes, so it's not sleeping. I don't remember if it's ever frozen while using the dongle/BLE. I normally only use the dongle/BLE for a few minutes after upgrading firmware (to test their basic functions).

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Regarding the power-cycling...
I have USB Standby Power and Resume by USB Device features disabled in my desktop PC's BIOS.
When I cold-boot my PC with the UHK80's batteries disconnected, I see this on the OLED display:

I assumed that meant it was being fully power-cycled, as it's similar to what I see when I disconnect/reconnect the USB cable (without batteries) while the PC is powered on.

[mondalaci]

agent/packages/usb/get-uptime.ts provides the uptime of your UHK, such as 0d 11:7:41, so it's useful to reveal when your UHK was power-cycled the last time.

There's also a more involved way for you guys to help resolve this issue: by connecting a UART adapter:

You can use your UHK while the adapter interconnects your UHK 80 via UART and your computer via USB. You'd have to run a terminal application on your OS, such as GNU Screen or Minicom, and copy-paste the observed errors.

Let me know if you're interested, and I can provide it.

[pcooke9]

Let me know if you're interested, and I can provide it

Although I'd like to be more helpful, I'm not a developer, and that's all likely far beyond my capabilities.😅

[mondalaci]

Totally understand! Just to clarify, this would take unscrewing two screws, connecting a cable, and starting an application.

[pcooke9]

I'm more worried about properly using the software. I've got zero skills behind a terminal, seriously. Especially if I have to work outside of Windows. If it's just a matter of copy/pasting commands or whatever, I can give it a shot. I just have to warn ya, someone might need to walk me through it...

[mondalaci]

It's just copy-pasting from Minicom on Windows, and I'm glad to help if you get stuck.

[pcooke9]

Ok. I'm just getting ready for bed now, but you can send me the details on the UHK forum or whatever.🙂

[pcooke9]

So I reconnected the batteries a few days ago, and I've been having freezes/resets a few times a day. Garbled output is still rare though.

I've been mostly using the recent master branch versions of 12.3.3.