Troubleshooting new dice that wont turn on

As more people get their dice in hands, some people have had dice that don’t seem to charge at first. Reaching out to the support team can always help (support@gamewithpixels.com) but with a small team at Pixels, it sometimes takes a while to get to everyone, so here are a few troubleshooting things the discord community has found to try while you wait.

The first and rarest of the troubleshooting is the rotation trick, when the die is in the charger with the highest face up, look in the little hole in the bottom. If there is a red light shining it means this is unlikely your problem, and try the other methods below. If you don’t see a red light then the charger might not register a die. When my first die (a d20) did this, I realized the charging coil was slightly off center (you can check by using a toothpick to push the tray insert out of the charger, the coil should line up nicely around the hole) if this is the case, that has been confirmed to not pass quality standards. But while you wait for support, you can try rotating the die in the charger to potentially get it to line up so you can use your die. Best example of rotating is the d20, since each face is a triangle, there are 3 orientations it can sit in the base. if the position it is sitting doesn’t charge or show the red light underneath, rotate the die, with the same face on the bottom, to the next orientation. For d20’s rotate it 120 degrees. and try with every orientation until the red light shines. If none of the orientations get you a red light in the hole on the bottom, you probably need to wait for Pixles support to get back to you. ***someone reported that with the coil being off center they tried placing the die directly on the charging coil without the insert tray and that worked. if you need to do that definitely reach out to support about the charger being defective but it again could get your die usable while waiting.

If you got a red light but don’t seem to be charging the die (not having a red light does not rule out these troubleshooting steps, my original wording was because the above method only works if there is no red light), there are 2 potential fixes. the first seems to be firmware issue causing the die to charge, VERY slowly. the fix there is to leave it charging for a very long time. Some people who got their dice working left their dice untouched on the charger for 72+ hours. if this gets your die to turn on, immediately connect it to the app, update the firmware, and press reset die settings once the firmware is updated. the dice should charge normally after that.
The other solution came from the pixels team in update 69, linked below, under the header (:snowflake: Another Weird One: Freezing Dice FTW)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixels-dice/pixels-the-electronic-dice/posts/4257857
I personally don’t know what makes it work, but in some cases, charging your die in the freezer has made them work! to be safe, give it that longer period of charging mentioned above if possible. If this gets your die to turn on immediately update the firmware and press reset die settings.

Dice Sets
(to adjust tray inserts or place dice directly on the coils, you can open the bottom of the charging tray to be able to push the inserts out from the bottom. the tray was designed with this in mind)
Some people with sets have noticed some dice will flash red in the charger and not charge. one temporary solution to get them charged has been removing the tray inserts for the dice and setting the dice on the coil directly gets them to charge, as stated above thats not the intended process and reach out to support. when dice are charged update firmware and reset die settings. this is just a recommendation to be able to use dice while waiting on support.

If you also have a single die charger, you can try moving problem dice to the single charger (either moving the insert or placing directly on the coil of the single charger) to charge the die long enough to update firmware and reset die settings.

People have also stated that their charging case only has the issue with all the dice in, and having fewer dice seems to also make charging easier. again not intended function

One more point. tray inserts are “directional” meaning 3 of the sides on the bottom are longer than the other (every other tab), and make sure the trays are fullly inserted into the charging case

Hopefully this gets your dice to turn on, but if not, you may need to wait for support from the actual team.

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If anyone notices mistakes as I am not a great writer, let me know and I will fix. If we find any other troubleshooting I can add it :+1:

one addition I missed when it comes to the rotation trick. someone reported that with the coil being off center they tried placing the die directly on the charging coil without the insert tray and that worked. if you need to do that definitely reach out to support about the charger being defective but it again could get your die usable while waiting. moved this into the post

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First: Thanks for doing the post!

Second: I think it would be great if a moderator (@Top64 ?) can make the first post a wiki, so additional findings can be added to it. This will make it even more comprehensive than having to search a possibly growing thread a solution fitting your problem.

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I will take a look at what we can do here :slight_smile:

@Top64 I can no longer edit the main post, if you have access to edit it, can you add a paragraph for set charger cases once we get a little more experience with them, I will share what’s been noticed so far in the comments as things come up with the new hardware.

Some people withe sets have noticed some dice will flash red in the charger and not charge. one temporary solution to get them charged has been removing the tray inserts for the dice and setting the dice on the coil directly gets them to charge, as stated above thats not the intended process and reach out to support. when dice are charged update firmware and reset die settings. this is just a recommendation to be able to use dice while waiting on support.

some people have also stated that their charging case only has the issue with all the dice in, and having fewer dice seems to also make charging easier. again not intended function

one more point. tray inserts are “directional” meaning 3 of the sides on the bottom are longer than the other (every other tab), and make sure the trays are fullly inserted into the charging case

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This is why I recommended making it a wiki post, this would allow all users to edit it. Unfortunately this requires again a minimum trust level which is at the start of new forum with Discourse always a bit difficult, so it currently has to be done by a moderator. I am so free to link the guide for it:

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