Issue with ChipWhisperer Lite-ARM Capture Board - Not Detected and Overheating

Embedded Security ChipWhisperer Hardware
1

I have been working with the ChipWhisperer Lite-ARM capture board and have successfully collected numerous power traces in the past. However, recently I encountered an issue when I plugged the board into the USB port of my computer.

Upon connection, I noticed that the blue and red LEDs near the Atmel microcontroller blink for a brief moment (approximately a micro-second) before switching off completely. The board is no longer recognized in the Device Manager on my computer, and in my Jupyter Notebook, I receive the following error message:

OSError: Could not find ChipWhisperer. Is it connected?

Previously, when the board was connected, the blue LED near the Atmel microcontroller would stay blinking on as long as it was connected via USB. However, this is no longer the case, and the LED does not light up at all now. Additionally, I have noticed that the Atmel microcontroller is heating up. I am not getting any COM4 also in the Device Manager.

Given these symptoms, I suspect there may be a hardware issue. Could you please advise on what steps I can take to resolve this?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards,
Sneha Swaroopa

2

Hi,

Can you try shorting the erase jumpers while plugging the board in as described here: CW1173 ChipWhisperer-Lite — ChipWhisperer Documentation.

It’s normal for the microcontroller to heat up a bit as it’s generating a bit of heat from an internal LDO. How hot is your device getting roughly?

Alex

3

I shorted the erase wire, and as a result, the RED and BLUE LEDs turned on but very faintly. However, the device is not appearing in the Device Manager, making it undetectable. The device is generating a normal amount of heat. But the device is not getting ON.

4

Follow the instructions here:

import chipwhisperer as cw
cw.program_sam_firmware(hardware_type='cwlite')
5

I am encountering this error, and as I mentioned earlier, the CW board is not being detected by the Device Manager. Given that the board itself is not recognized, it is unclear how the firmware flashing process can proceed. Could you please provide guidance on resolving this detection issue first? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OSError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[2], line 2
1 import chipwhisperer as cw
----> 2 cw.program_sam_firmware(hardware_type=‘cw305’)

File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\chipwhisperer_init_.py:145, in program_sam_firmware(serial_port, hardware_type, fw_path)
143 at91_ports = get_at91_ports()
144 if len(at91_ports) == 0:
→ 145 raise OSError("Could not find bootloader serial port)
146 if len(at91_ports) > 1:
147 raise OSError(“Found multiple bootloaders, please specify com port. See Updating Firmware — ChipWhisperer Documentation”)

OSError: Could not find bootloader serial port, please see Updating Firmware — ChipWhisperer Documentation

6

Why did you set hardware_type='cw305'? It should be cwlite.
Follow these steps:

  1. With the CW-lite plugged in, short the erase pins (as described in the link above).
  2. Unplug and re-plug the CW-Lite. Which LEDs are on?
  3. Run the FW programming instructions exactly as I showed in my previous post. What is the output from this?

Finally, when you say that the Atmel chip is hot, can you quantify that a bit more? Are you able to hold a finger on it comfortably?

7

Hi, I have done all the above mentioned steps.

  1. I shorted the erase pins.
  2. I unplugged and re-plugged it. These are the RED and BLUE LEDs which are ON as shown below:
    IMG20250331112945
    IMG202503311129451920×3415 585 KB
  3. I ran the code with “cwlite”. I am getting the same error:"---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    OSError Traceback (most recent call last)
    Cell In[2], line 2
    1 import chipwhisperer as cw
    ----> 2 cw.program_sam_firmware(hardware_type=‘cwlite’)

File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\chipwhisperer_init_.py:145, in program_sam_firmware(serial_port, hardware_type, fw_path)
143 at91_ports = get_at91_ports()
144 if len(at91_ports) == 0:
→ 145 raise OSError(“Could not find bootloader serial port, please see Updating Firmware — ChipWhisperer Documentation”)
146 if len(at91_ports) > 1:
147 raise OSError(“Found multiple bootloaders, please specify com port. See Updating Firmware — ChipWhisperer Documentation”)

OSError: Could not find bootloader serial port, please see Updating Firmware — ChipWhisperer Documentation"
4. As I already mentioned the device is not getting detected in the Device Manager itself.
5. Initially, I can hold my finger on it, but if I keep it connected to the USB, it gets too hot to touch for long. The heat level seems similar to when it was functioning properly. However, it’s not powering on or getting detected now.

8

That doesn’t sound too good. How long have you had it for? And is there anything else you remember that might had led to it not working anymore?

9

Our lab has had the board for over 7 months now. I had left it connected to the PC overnight while I was working remotely via TeamViewer, which I had been doing for several days without any issues. It was working fine the night before, but when I came in the next morning and tried running my code again to capture power traces, I suddenly ran into this problem. Nothing unusual had happened as far as I know, so I’m not sure what could have triggered it :frowning: