Stuck in menu mode/boot loop? ESP32-S3-N16R8.

[Darien]

My pin2dmd was getting a little weird about newer serum colourizations (flashing).  Updating didn't help.  So I thought I'd see what had been done in modern DIY options when I saw all the "Zedmd" options in the dmddevice.ini. 

Zedmd updater gave me errors (turned out they were missing files works now) so I just used ESPtool commandline to burn the 128x32 s3 bin.   It rebooted and shows the zedmd  splash briefly  RGB order: 0 (correct) Debug: 0 USB connection I upped the packet size to 1024 brightness: 5.  Hit exit.... rebooted to menu.     

No matter how many times I erase the flash or whether or I use esptool or the Updater frontend I end up on this page.  And the updater won't handshake (TBF it is in Menu Mode).  I've used a few known good usb-c cables.  I even tried the right (serial?) port.

 

I thought maybe running a rom would clear the mode by initializing the ini but it just crashes.  I redid my vpinmame dir.    A virtual DMD works correctly, if enabled. but if the zedmd is plugged in and enabled it just crashes vpinmame with no errors in the Log file. (which lists the vid,pid,com and even packetsize I set manually on the unit) 

i've ordered replacement S3 in case it's a hardware fault but since it won't be here till thursday I thought I'd ask if anyone else had this problem. (just my luck I'm up to my neck in 8266s which don't have enough IOs...) 

[PastorLUL]

When you navigate to exit and click you get sent straight back into the menu? That seems really strange, you should upload a video if that is the case. My only guess is that one of your buttons is linked directly to RESET and therefore you are just rebooting the device. 

[Darien]

Forgot to come back to this!

Correct, not reset but one of the menu buttons actually.     I made an issue on the github because I was having a problem compiling it S3 fw (so I could use a different pin)  but secondarily I ended up correcting my own problem (so I added suggested documentation).

TL;DR  widely available "cheap"  N16R8 has a nonstandard layout with an 5050 RGB LED tied to IO48 with a 0 ohm resistor. Remove?  Oh look it boots.  

Edited October 21, 2025 by Darien

[PastorLUL]

Heh, yeah there is some crap being sold. One other issue is sometimes a capacitor is present near the "BOOT" button. If so you need to remove it because your S3 will not boot otherwise. Just funky stuff

[endeemillr]

On 10/21/2025 at 3:02 PM, Darien said:

Forgot to come back to this!

Correct, not reset but one of the menu buttons actually.     I made an issue on the github because I was having a problem compiling it S3 fw (so I could use a different pin)  but secondarily I ended up correcting my own problem (so I added suggested documentation).

TL;DR  widely available "cheap"  N16R8 has a nonstandard layout with an 5050 RGB LED tied to IO48 with a 0 ohm resistor. Remove?  Oh look it boots.  

Did you remove the led or the resistor? I'm stuck on menu am straining my eyes to see if the resistor is there and can't really tell. The led is so bright I wouldn't mind breaking it if needed. The boot resistor is definitely not there. 

Edit: Last night before writing, I had attempted to scrape the area to no effect, but this morning I planted the tip of a knife right in there and it did the trick! So happy, and the s3 is a definite improvement over my old esp32

Edited January 14 by endeemillr