Is my BPI-R4 broken? Cannot access the UART menu at all

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4(MT7988)
1

So I have FTID FT232RNL chipset serial to USB adapter.

I installed SD card with OpenWRT image and inserted the card on the board. Red LED lights up first and then green lights up and both lights stay on.

But I cannot access UART menu at all. There is nothing on the serial console and it’s not responding to my inputs.

I double checked that I am connecting TX ↔ RX, RX ↔ TX and GND ↔ GND. Still nothing.

I changed the cable, still nothing. I checked my ONU which has R232 pins and the output does appear on my serial console. If I try on a different computer, I receive good outputs if connected to ONU, but still nothing if connected to BPI R4.

My serial connection are set at 115200 baud with 8N1.

I swapped power supply adapters (12v/2A and I also tried USB C power supply (I have 120W USB charger).

It hasn’t helped.

BUT if I remove the wire from GND pin, the serial console shows garbled continuous text. If I re-connect GND pin, the garbled text stops. If I try to swap my RX/TX and TX/RX connection to RX/RX and TX/TX, there is still nothing.

My serial to USB adapter is set at 3.3V. It has never been changed.

What else can I try?

2

Can you SSH connect successfully after powering on and starting? The BPI-R4 in my hand always has a red light on, and the green light will flash when powered on. During the startup process, the blue light will light up and then turn off.

I am using the official image provided by BPI. Banana Pi BPI-R4 - Banana Pi Wiki (banana-pi.org)

3

I’ve tried connecting via SSH using its default IP, 192.168.1.1. Didn’t work.

I also tried using port scanner, none of local IP addresses were responded to.

I switched the image (I was using OpenWRT fork earlier) to official image from BPI. There was a small change, the board’s blue LED now shows up and stays on. So I now have 3 LED lights staying on continuously.

I also tried SSH again after switching the image, still didn’t work.

UART still doesn’t work though.

4

It is possible that there is an issue with your development board. It is recommended to contact the seller for after-sales service.