CM5 HA Yellow Installation not off to a good start (I'm in over my head)

Installation
1

So as a preamble, I’ll say that I consider myself a tinkerer, but definitely not an expert, nor a programmer in any way. I copy/paste code into Terminal from online guides and hope it all works.

In this case, setting up my new HA Yellow has not worked. I am looking to switch all of my smart devices over to HA, and thought I’d go with the “best” option, the Yellow. Also in the name of “best,” I went with the CM5 since it’s newer and faster. But I think that maybe the CM4 is a bit more supported, and would’ve made for an easier install with the USB stick. The CM5’s EMCC apparently needs to be flashed using rpiboot, and I’m struggling with the technicalities of it all. I’ve followed the HA official guide in trying to do this, as well as YouTuber Jeff Geerling’s guide on how to flash the EMCC with rpiboot. But I’m getting stuck on “Waiting for BCM2835/6/7/2711/2712…” because my Mac doesn’t seem able to recognize the Yellow, which is stuck on a solid green LED. Red and Amber LEDs are not lit at all.

Anyone know what the fix for this is?

2

Slow down. Yellow comes with Home Assistant already flashed in the EMCC. What made you think you needed to flash it again?

Note- I run my Home Assistant on an Intel NUC i3 and I have never seen a Green or Yellow.

3

I bought the Yellow as a kit, and bought the CM5 separately, so that’s why it’s not preinstalled :confused:

4

Ignore everything here. See my next post.

I didn’t know this was a thing.

When you cite references, provide the links when possible. I had to look up rpiboot and it looks like the hard way to install HAOS to the BCM chip.

Since I have never touched a MAC, I refer to how I flashed HAOS to a Raspberry Pi3 a long, long time ago. (The Pi3 uses the BCM2837).

In short: Flash the HAOS image to the boot device (SD card), insert the SD card into the host computer, apply power.

Detailed steps:

  • Download the Home Assistant OS (HAOS) installer image
  • Install software like Raspberry Pi Imager or balenaEtcher on your computer to flash the image. (Personally, I use Balena Etcher).
  • Use the Raspberry Pi Imager or balenaEtcher to flash the HAOS installer image onto your microSD card.
  • Once the flashing process is complete, insert the microSD card into the Raspberry Pi.
  • Power on the Raspberry Pi. It should boot up and start the initial setup process.
  • Complete the setup by following the on-screen instructions provided by the Home Assistant OS.

Hope this helps.

5

Yellow kit Reference

How did you connect the UART pins? If I see “Waiting for…” when flashing an ESP device, for example, it usually means that I have misconnected the Tx and Rx wires.

Try swapping Tx and Rx and try again.