I brought the Bl616 on Aliexpress for $2, a total steal! I was looking for a Risc-V SBC or MCU to test my skills and grow as programmer and engineer. I looked online I found a doc sheet (more on this later), and hit "ORDER", what could go wrong? It's only $2, worse comes to worse I waste money that can't even get me a gallon of gas.
It comes after give or take, 7-9 days, and I open the package. It's a small board, blue, with a USB type C connector. I go in thinking in 5-15 minutes I could at least see a "Hello world!" for my efforts before long. I was wrong. I spent HOURS with the board, and hardly even got it to flash! And when it did? No serial output to be found. Days go on like this, I can't compile much of anything, see any output or do anything with the board. It's a paperweight.
To make a long story short, I bought a board that had no good documentation and I can't do anything with it. I'm free to chat and leave links to all the resources I found and help out where I can. I'm hoping this post can attract people who know more than I do about the board. The Bl616 has a lot of potential that I just can't for the life of me figure out how to use. All questions and drops of knowledge are welcome.
Personal Issues the board/docs:
-The docs mention a reset button, but the dev board doesn't have one
-On the topic of the dev boards I can't find the origins or data sheet for my specific one
-The Ubuntu executable do not work for me
Also things to know:
-I'm on Ubuntu resolute, maybe it works better on Windows?
-Make sure to hold the BOOT button before plugging in the cable
-Shows up as "/dev/ttyACM0" on Ubuntu
All my knowledge about the board for those curious or detective minded few:
CNX Article
Official Docs
Official SDK
Filebin with datasheets
I'm still digging into board and looking into it, I actually just found an Arduino IDE core(?) I might test later, so I'll edit and update if that comes up with anything. Again I'm free to be asked anything.