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First boot
Turn a Kode Dot on for the first time: what the buttons do, how it charges, how to find it from a computer, and the one reset that fixes a boot loop.
What it is
A Kode Dot arrives assembled and charged enough to start. There is nothing to solder and nothing to install: hold a button, and it boots into what it shipped with. This page is the ten minutes after that: turning it on and off, charging it, and finding it from a computer, which is the one thing every later page assumes.
How to turn it on
- Hold the bottom side button for two to three seconds. The screen lights.
- Or plug in USB-C. The Kode Dot starts on its own, and charges while it runs.
- To turn it off, use the power option of whatever it is running. There is no off button: power off is a firmware action that cuts the battery.
Specifications
| Thing | Value |
|---|---|
| Power on | Bottom side button held 2 to 3 s. It is the charger's own power-on line, so it works from a fully off device. USB-C plugged in also starts it |
| Power off | A firmware action. kodeOS's Turn off card puts the board in deep sleep, and BOT held about a second wakes it. Ship mode, only from the console verb ship_mode, opens the battery switch and nothing is preserved (internals/power-and-sleep) |
| Top side button and the pad | Whatever the running app makes of them |
| Charging | USB-C. The Kode Dot runs while it charges |
| From a computer | The USB-C port is a USB serial port and a JTAG debugger at once, on macOS /dev/cu.usbmodem*. The path changes on every reconnect |
| Magnetic connector | Charges the Kode Dot, or powers something from it |
| In the box | TBD: whether a cable or a microSD card ships with it |