No tuner device found

I just received my DIY kit in the mail, which includes the CHIP and SDRx.

In the Tuner app, the Status tab never displays anything.

I have tried different power supplies and cables for powering the CHIP. I have also tried different ports for connecting the SDRx to the CHIP. Currently I am using a 2.1A power supply and the SDRx has the male USB-A plugged into the female USB-A on the CHIP, as recommended in the instruction manual.

I was able to SSH into the CHIP and with some futzing around I was able to run “demod”. It reports the following:

SDR satellite demodulator, V1.0.5 Outernet Inc.
No sdr devices found.
No tuner device found.

I noticed that there is a light on the SDRx which turns on when I plug it into my computer, but does not turn on when I plug it into the CHIP. I have determined that the most likely problem is that the CHIP is damaged and is not powering up the SDRx. Indeed, upon inspection of the CHIP there is a loose component on the bottom of the board near the USB port. This is fresh out of the box. All I did with the kit was plug the CHIP into the power supply.

I have a spare CHIP that I could swap out for the damaged one. When I plug in the SDRx to the other CHIP, the light turns on, which is promising. However, all of the links to the CHIP flasher tool have disappeared from the website. In anyone can tell me where to get the CHIP flasher tool, I would like to try another CHIP and see if it fixes the problem.

I’ve just ordered a Dreamcatcher as well. However, as the Outernet software is not yet available for that platform, RPi support has been deprecated, and the CHIP flasher tool is no longer available, there doesn’t seem to be any officially supported way for me to connect to Outernet at the moment.

Can you take a picture of the loose component? It might be able to be soldered into place. The software is in my dropbox.

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Thank you so much for posting the software. I was able to flash my spare CHIP. The CHIP was indeed the problem. My other CHIP, which is from the CHIP Kickstarter, has a plastic covering over the bottom. This protects the component that was damaged on my DIY kit CHIP.

I also found that connecting the SDRx to the CHIP via the micro USB port instead of the male A connector seems to work better.

Everything is working great now. I have the unit mounted in the 3D printed case that I found on this forum. I was able to achieve an SNR of 3-4 just by pointing it in the general direction where I thought the satellite should be. This is inside my apartment! I was surprised I was able to get signal at all.