How do we know when it's safe to unplug power?
- @cghague
When shutting down the TinyPilot itself (Voyager2a PoE), I notice the fans stay on and spinning eternally. How do I know when it's safe to unplug the unit? I have already corrupted my SDcard once apparently from disconnecting too early. Is there any externally visible indicator (LED pattern, etc) to know for sure?
- CCharles Hague @cghague2024-04-19 00:27:01.325Z
Hi @luckman212, thanks for your question about powering off a TinyPilot device.
You can safely turn off your TinyPilot device by going to System, then Power, then Shutdown. After a few moments, you should see a screen confirming that your TinyPilot device has shut down. It is safe to disconnect the power supply at this point.
- LIn reply toluckman212⬆:@luckman212
On my system, a message that it's safe to unplug never appears. After clicking the shutdown button, the dialog box remains on the screen. About 4 seconds later, the LEDs above the Ethernet port go dark (but red power LED remains on, as do the fans...)
- CCharles Hague @cghague2024-04-19 20:15:37.361Z
Thank you for getting back to me.
I'm unaware of any issues preventing the shutdown confirmation from being shown - it's possible your browser isn't updating the page once the connection drops. For reference, the fans will stay on and the power light will remain illuminated even after a complete shutdown if the TinyPilot device is still connected to a power supply.
The shutdown process usually takes under 30 seconds, so for a cautious approach, I recommend waiting about a minute after requesting a shutdown before disconnecting the power. The Ethernet connection is one of the last parts of the system to go down, so the link and activity lights are a good indicator of how the shutdown is progressing.
- L@luckman212
I just flashed a completely fresh SDcard and installed 2.6.3. Opened in a clean browser, incognito mode with no extensions. Went to System → Power → Shut Down and waited. No shutdown confirmation ever appears (the device does power down though). After a while, the dialog box below is shown:
Asking again - am I doing something wrong, or is this the expected behavior?
David @david2024-05-13 11:33:15.851Zam I doing something wrong, or is this the expected behavior?
It sounds like your TinyPilot is shutting down, but your browser is receiving an error response. I'm unsure what the issue could be - I haven't seen this issue before.
We normally expect to see this message:
Like Charles mentioned, if your TinyPilot's Ethernet LEDs turn off, it's a good indicator that the shutdown is complete.
Other signs that your device has shut down include the device's activity LED (next to the power LED) not flashing, and you should be able to see the 'Disconnected' indicator on the bottom left-hand corner of the web interface.
If you'd like to try and diagnose the underlying issue causing this error message, could you right-click on your browser window and select the "Inspect" option and navigate to the 'Console' tab. Then click "Shut down" on the TinyPilot web interface.
Once you receive the error message window, could you copy the output from the console and paste it here for me to review?
Please let me know if you have any questions.
- L@luckman212
Sure, I just tested it in a fresh Incognitor browser, here's a screenshot.
This is taken after waiting about 4 minutes after pressing the "Shut Down" button. The unit's Ethernet LED went off, but the red LED on the front remains on, as do the fans.
- David @david2024-05-14 11:24:01.857Z
Thanks for the screenshot.
Just to clarify, you didn't receive the error message in this instance? Could you copy and paste the console log's text in your reply when you next experience the error message?
but the red LED on the front remains on, as do the fans.
This is expected behavior. After shutdown, the device remains powered, leaving the Power LED lit and the fan running, but the TinyPilot is no longer running. It's safe to pull the power cable at this stage.
- L@luckman212
I didn't wait long enough that last time for the error. I just repeated the test, here are the entire contents of the Console log and a new screenshot
(forum will not allow me to upload
.txt/.log/.zipfiles, so here's a link:- CCharles Hague @cghague2024-05-15 21:44:46.794Z
Thanks for sharing those details with us!
The screenshot shows that your TinyPilot device has a non-standard
.tstop-level domain, suggesting an uncommon network configuration, which could explain the unusual behavior. Can you please share more details about your network configuration? For example, are you using Tailscale?- L@luckman212
Ah yes I am using Tailscale! Makes sense then, I guess tailscaled gets shut down and so the websocket loses it's connection during the shutdown process. I will re-test using the LAN IP instead. Thanks for the tip.
- CCharles Hague @cghague2024-05-16 22:45:06.457Z
Thanks for confirming; your theory is exactly the same as mine! The Tailscale link drops sooner than both the TinyPilot service and the Ethernet connection, which would explain the unusual behavior.
It should be safe to assume that your TinyPilot device has shut down about a minute after you click the button. You can confirm by checking the lights on the device, but if that's not an option, you could also try refreshing the page to verify it doesn't load or check that the link is down on the Tailscale dashboard.