I have been using a couple of these relays for about a year and they both stopped responding. When I try and run a I2C scanner program it says no device found (the red power LED is on) Is there a way to reset them ?
I noticed there are 3 versions of the single relay, are the newer ones more reliable ?
thanks
Hi jimk123,
If you are not able to see the Qwiic Relays on your bus, the only way to reset/recover it would be to re-upload the [firmware to the ATTiny85 (assuming the ATTiny85 is still working).
As for differences between the designs and reliability, the only large difference would be from the [first SparkX release and the 2nd SparkX release/[SparkFun version where we isolated the HV side of the relay from the rest of the copper pour. The firmware and other components are identical.
We would be happy to try and help you troubleshoot what happened to cause the two Qwiic Relays to stop working suddenly. If you can provide a bit more information about the circuit/project they were in we can start troubleshooting. My first guess would be a voltage spike or logic issue with another device on the I2C bus. Did you have any other I2C devices sharing the same bus with the Qwiic Relays in your circuit?](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15093)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/14668)](Qwiic_Relay/Firmware/Qwiic_Relay_Firmware/Qwiic_Relay_Firmware.ino at master · sparkfunX/Qwiic_Relay · GitHub)
Hi Mark
Apologies on the delay getting back to you. I have 10 i2c devices, two of them are the relays. It is a arduino mega board with a Adafruit FONA shield that has been running about a year on my boat. It sends me two txt messages a day providing a status on temp, humidity, voltage on the boat batteries, AC shower power status, bilge level, etc. and I was using the two relays to toggle deck and dock lights on and off by sending a txt message to it. It is powered by a usb cable plugged into the boats usb jacks. None of the other devices were affected. I replaced them with two spares I had and so far so good, so maybe a glitch.
Is the firmware update something I can do or do I need to mail them back ?
Thanks
Is there an option I can click on the forums to get an email when someone has posted a reply ? Thanks
Hi again jimk123,
Not a problem with the delay. Are any of the other devices on your I2C bus running at something other than 3.3V? It might be that you have, say, a 5V device on there that is pulling the lines up to 5V. You would not seen an immediate issue with the Qwiic Relay but over time, that may have damaged the I2C lines on the relays. That is my only guess as to what happened with the Qwiic Relays outside of a different hardware problem.
As for re-uploading the firmware, you would need an AVR programmer like [this. We have a tutorial for uploading to another product with the same IC [here. Once you get everything set up instead of the “Hello World” test, upload the [firmware.
Finally, you can absolutely set it up to receive e-mail notifications for a variety of things. I am not sure what the default settings are but to change them, first, go to the “Welcome, ‘username’” menu at the top of the page and select “Change Password”. That will open your User Control Panel. Next, navigate to the “Board Preferences” tab and select “Edit notification options” and you can select which options you want to have notifications e-mailed to you.](Qwiic_Relay/Firmware/Qwiic_Relay_Firmware/Qwiic_Relay_Firmware.ino at master · sparkfun/Qwiic_Relay · GitHub)](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/re-programming-the-lilytiny--lilytwinkle)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11801)
Hi Mark
As far as I know everything is 3.3 V, on the mega I used one of your quick connectors, cut of the connector on one end and wiring it to the 3.3 V pin on the Arduino and ground and daisychain all the qwiic sensors off of that
Appreciate the detailed steps to reprogram them. the relays are only 11 or $12 apiece I think I’ll just buy a couple new ones
Thanks for the tip on getting email notifications for replies and I set it on my profile
Hi again Jim,
Hmm, I want to chalk it up to just something weird going on with the hardware but both devices failing either at the same time or one shortly after the other is a bit concerning. We’ll consider this issue resolved for now but if you have any issues with your replacement Qwiic Relay boards, let us know and we can troubleshoot further.