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Troubleshooting

Start here, then follow the link. This page routes by what you are seeing. The actual fixes live next to the guide they belong to, because the same symptom means different things depending on which subsystem produced it.

Run the diagnostic first

uv run python scripts/hardware-test/diagnose.py

Seven checks across the whole signal path, each naming the link that broke. It will usually answer the question faster than this page. See hardware diagnostic.

Nothing happens when I hit a ball

What you see Go to
No trigger at all; GATE LED does not flash Sound trigger § No trigger received
GATE LED stays lit constantly Sound trigger § GATE LED stays on
Triggers fire but no I/Q data arrives Sound trigger § Triggers but no I/Q data
Triggers constantly, even without a strike Sound trigger § Too sensitive
Diagnostic says "CW mode, not rolling buffer" Rolling buffer setup — re-run and power-cycle
Radar not detected at all Pi setup § Radar not detected

Speeds are wrong or missing

What you see Go to
Captures truncate or parse-fail intermittently UART § Troubleshooting — dropped bytes; try --ops-baud 115200
Connects, but at 19,200 baud UART § Troubleshooting — Pi pin 8 → J3 pin 6
Ball speed reads low Radar positioning — cosine error from off-axis placement
Spin looks implausible Rolling buffer & spin — spin is experimental by design

Angles are wrong or missing

What you see Go to
Launch angle reads zero or absent IWR6843 § Verify the first capture
Angles present but implausible IWR6843 § Measure the geometry — wrong geometry fails silently
Low-confidence angles on many shots Low-confidence recovery
Club path looks wrong Club path § Set the target-line reference
Radar does not enumerate or dump IWR6843 troubleshooting
Estimator limits unclear Calibration § Estimator limitations

Tilt and inclinometer

What you see Go to
Green LED on, but 0x18 missing from i2cdetect Inclinometer § 0x18 is missing
WHO_AM_I expected 0x33 Inclinometer § WHO_AM_I
Permission denied on /dev/i2c-1 Inclinometer § Permission denied
Pitch sign is backward Inclinometer § Pitch sign is backward
Shots report moving or stale Inclinometer § Noisy pitch
Pi reboots or shows a black screen Inclinometer § Pi reboots

Battery and power

What you see Go to
OpenFlight shows a red -- Battery § Red --
Pi taskbar says 0% Battery § Taskbar says 0%
LEDs and percentage disagree Battery § LEDs disagree
External power state backwards or stuck Battery § External power
Want to undo the Pi changes Battery § Roll back

Software and UI

What you see Go to
Service will not start Pi setup § Service won't start
Slow UI updates Pi setup § Slow UI updates
Display issues over SSH Pi setup § Display over SSH
Shots not reaching the simulator Simulator connectors
Cloud uploads stuck or parked Cloud sync § Troubleshooting
Logs not arriving in Grafana Observability § Troubleshooting

Deprecated K-LD7 hardware

What you see Go to
Any K-LD7 issue Legacy K-LD7 troubleshooting
K-LD7 not connecting Pi setup § K-LD7 not connecting

Still stuck

Collect a session log and the diagnostic output, then open an issue at github.com/jewbetcha/openflight/issues.

The TrackMan test process describes what data is worth collecting when a measurement looks wrong rather than absent.