Is my CoreS3 SE defective?

rgsteele

I just got the M5Stack CoreS3 SE and I'm having nothing but problems with it. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if the unit I got is defective in some way.

Out of the box, when I plugged it in, the demo app was working fine. I could see available Wi-Fi networks, draw on the screen in the Touch app, see the waveforms from the microphones, etc.

I have Arduino 2.3.4 on a MacBook Air M2 running macOS Sequoia 15.3. I installed the M5Stack board manager 2.1.3 and the M5CoreS3 library 1.0.0 (and all its dependencies). I tried to upload the sketch under Examples > M5CoreS3 > Basic > display.

When I plug the unit in or press the reset button, the sketch appears to run for a split second, and then the screen goes blank (or occasionally, it displays different coloured vertical bars). This happens whether I plug it in to my computer or to a USB wall adapter, with different cables. However, I discovered that if I change the CPU frequency from 240 MHz to 160 MHz under the Tools menu, this sketch runs normally.

Other things I have tried to install don't work at all, with the screen simply remaining black. This includes using the m5burner application to try and re-install the CoreS3SE UserDemo.

Anything else I can try, or should I be asking for a refund?

ajb2k3

@rgsteele Have you tried ERASE first in M5Burner and then burning UIFlow2?

rgsteele

Hi @ajb2k3, thanks for responding.

I just tried doing an erase and then burning the UIFlow2.0 image. As with the CoreS3 SE UserDemo, the burn completes successfully, but nothing is displayed on the screen whether I reset it with the button or unplug and plug it back in.

If I connect with the serial monitor, however, the following is displayed:

[FROM M5Burner] /dev/tty.usbmodem1401 opened.

       _  __ _               
 _   _(_)/ _| | _____      __
| | | | | |_| |/ _ \ \ /\ / /
| |_| | |  _| | (_) \ V  V / 
 \__,_|_|_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/  V2.2.1

Is there something else I should be doing?

ajb2k3

@rgsteele No, that all I can think off, you need to contact the person you brought it from for a replacement.

robski

Have you tried EasyLoader files like "CoreS3 Factory Firmware Easyloader" from documents webpage?

https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/CoreS3

rgsteele

Thanks @ajb2k3, that's what I feared. I bought it directly from M5Stack and I've sent them two emails but haven't received a reply, so I guess I need to initiate a chargeback.

rgsteele

Update: M5Stack has finally responded to my emails, so we'll see where that goes.