Cohesion3D Board Indicator Status LEDs

This article addresses what the different states of LED lights mean on the Cohesion3D LaserBoard and Mini.

If you have an issue with your board, please locate the state your board is in, try to follow any steps to fix the issue, and if the issue persists, post to our forum for support.

When contacting support, please reference the LED Status LED by their names shown here.

Confusing support inquiry: “Lights 2,3 stay steady on, 4 and 5 blink rapidly, 6 stays steady on”

Good support inquiry: “VMOT and 3V3 on, L4 off, L2 and L3 blinking, L1 on.”

Power Off:

All LED’s are off.

Normal Operation:

VMOT on (Red) indicates that the board is receiving 24v power.
3V3 on (Green) indicates that the brain section of the board is receiving power.
L4 on (Green) indicates that the board recognized the SD Card was present during power up and booted successfully.
L3 and L2 flashing (Green) are the heartbeat of the board.
L1 on (Green) just because. L1 tends to be on unless there’s a problem.

All is good

Firmware Crash or Not Loaded:

Try pressing the Reset button on the board and seeing if the LEDs go back to Normal Operation mode.
Try to “Reflash board’s memory card with fresh files” procedure at the bottom of this page.

Memory Card Not Recognized

When L4 is off it means that the board did not recognize the memory card when it was powered on. This could manifest as L2 and L3 are off, or L2 and L3 are blinking as normal, but L4 is off.

Check that your memory card is properly inserted into the board. If not, power off, reinsert properly and power on again.
Place the board’s memory card into your computer and verify that you can see a firmware and config file on it. If you are able to see the files, eject the card safely and reinsert into the board with the power off. Try powering on again to see if you resume Normal Operation after the count up is complete.
If you are unable to see the files, it is possible that the card has become corrupted or dead. Get a new memory card and proceed with the instructions to “Reflash board’s memory card with fresh files” at the bottom of this page.

Board Failure or Wiring Issue:

VMOT on (Red) indicates that the board is receiving 24v power, but 3V3 and all other lights off indicates that the brain section of the board is not receiving power/ has a short.

On a Cohesion3D Mini, unfortunately this probably means that the board is dead because of a short, power spike, incorrect wiring, or something else that harmed the brain portion of the board.

On a Cohesion3D LaserBoard, there are additional protections on the board, so if you have a short on the 5v rail this could be a protection measure saving your board from harm.

Immediately turn all power off, take a picture of the board wired up exactly as it is, and post to the forum for support.

Flashing Firmware:

When you put a fresh firmware.bin on the board’s memory card, the board should flash that firmware, which will be indicated by the L1-L3 LEDs counting up in binary as shown here. After this count up is complete, they should resume Normal Operation.

Instructions to Reflash board’s memory card with fresh files:

Power off the board and remove the memory card.
Place the board’s memory card into your computer and verify that you can see a firmware and config file on it. Make a note of whether you were able to and if your computer reported any issues with the memory card.
Try to format the card and place clean config.txt and firmware.bin for the board to install onto the card.
Put the card back into the board and turn the board on.
Observe if the board’s LEDs go into Flashing Firmware state and then resume Normal Operation.

The stock files for the Cohesion3D LaserBoard can be found at: LaserBoard Firmware + Config Stock Files on Memory Card