Freeplay tech CM3 Booting issues

[Azz41]

I am having issues getting the unit to boot, i get a white screen, i have checked the cables for the screen are seated correctly, batteries are fully charged and have downloaded the freeplay version of retropie, i cannot get the power LED to turn on at all. i have reseated the CM3 module and screen multiple times, have also cleaned the contacts on the board too.

so far i am lost as what my next steps will be

Please help

[Flavor]

First, please (if you haven't already) go through all the stuff here: http://freeplaytech.com/troubleshooting

To me, you've said two significant things.
1) White screen
2) No green LED

That means that the Pi isn't booting our image. You have said that you used our image, so that must mean that the Pi isn't booting it. Now we need to figure out why.

I would guess that the problem is between the Pi and the SD image, so here is what I'd check first...

Make sure that the image file is getting burned to the SD card properly. If you pop the SD card into your computer, what do you see? Do you see a drive called 'boot' that contains files like config.txt? If not, I'd guess that the image didn't get written properly. How did you burn it to your SD? You may need to unzip it first.

[Azz41]

just put the SD card into my laptop, it had the config.txt file there, i downloaded a new image off the google drive for the CM3, reloaded the image using win32 disk imager, still nothing but a white screen and no power LED, i am thinking that i may have a possibly dead CM3 module

[Flavor]

It sounds like your SD is probably set up properly. What size SD card is it?

Did you go through the steps of battery troubleshooting on the http://freeplaytech.com/troubleshooting page?

How long have you held the power button in the ON position? Do you have HDMI that you can test with?

[Azz41]

I have a brand new 64gb sandisk sd card, i tried an older 32gb one and it didnt work either. i dont have a HDMI adaptor at home currently, but heading into town soon and will be picking one up then. i have been thru the troubleshooting page before posting here.
As for the power button, i have held it on for about 30 seconds and nothing

[Flavor]

So, on the battery steps, the back LED was green when no battery was installed and then it went blue when you installed a battery?

When you try to boot the machine, do you have batteries installed? Are you hooked to MicroUSB power?

Could you try hooking to MicroUSB power with no batteries installed. Then does anything change?

I have to agree that there seems to be an issue booting the Pi, but I wonder if it's more likely to be the SD card connector or the Pi connector on our board. I wonder if there could be an issue there. Could you send a couple photos of those areas?

[Azz41]

so i have connected the FPZ to the pi PSU without batteries connected and it is green, with the batteries connected it is blue, i fully charged the batteries yesterday afternoon and the light went green. from what i have read elsewhere the unit should not boot without having a battery connected. with the pictures , what side did you want with the SD card slot?

[Flavor]

This is the compute module 3 that was shipped with your Freeplay CM3, correct?

You are correct that the CM3 needs the battery to work properly, but it will usually start to boot and then shut down.

Please still test the HDMI if you have a cable. If not, I think we can guess that it won't work, because the green LED isn't coming on.

If you could take some photos, here's what would be nice.

1) Photo showing the solder points of the SD card slot.
2) Photo showing the CM3 installed
3) Photo without the CM3 showing the solder points on one side of the socket
4) Photo without the CM3 showing the solder points on the other side of the socket
5) Photo showing the SD card inserted into the slot

[Azz41]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w1nak...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w1nak...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w1nak...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w1nak...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5w1nak...sp=sharing

Is that the pics you are after?

also the CM3 module was purchased locally not included in the kit

[Flavor]

If you purchased the Compute Module 3 non-lite version, it will not boot from SD, so it won’t work with the Freeplay CM3 board. Is it a Compute Module 3 Lite?