Statuses, errors, indicators
There are two main status indication areas on Brian. Some error states are communicated using additional channels:
- Charging status LED: Indicates battery and charging status, placed near the USB-C port. The LED is active even when Brian is off, but connected to a charger.
- Status bar: Top part of the LCD display. Indicates various states and information. Brian needs to be running for the status bar to be active.
- Error animations: Brian is in beta-testing and errors may still occur. Some errors are detected and communicated to the user.
Status bar
Status bar contains information about a state of various functions. The list of icons from right to left:
Charging status
Battery and charging status can be seen at two different places - the status LED, which is operational even when Brian is powered off; and icons shown in the status bar.
| Status bar icon | LED behavior | Description |
|---|---|---|
 |
Off | No charger connected |
 |
Green | Fully charged; Charger is connected |
 |
Orange | Charging |
 |
Red | Slow charging or discharging with a connected charger This may be caused by a high power consumption (motors running) or a low output power of the used charger |
 |
Flashing red | Battery is very low or empty, Brian will shutdown When Brian is shutting down, it indicates this by a red fading out and down effect of the knob. |
| Display off | Flashing red | Battery or internal electronics is overheating. Self shutdown. |
Overheating
When Brian's battery or internal electronics will start to get too hot, the temperature warning icon (
) will be shown in the status bar, on the right side of the battery icon. When this is shown, performance is limited (charging speed, motor output, ...)
In case the temperature will keep rising, Brian will self-shutdown to prevent damage or battery fire. At this point, it will no longer be possible to run user programs or do anything in the menu. The display will be shutdown and refuse to power on. See section brian overheating.
Audio output
The speaker icon shows current setting of the volume and a sound output:
| Output device | 0% (mute) | 1 - 33% | 34 - 66% | 67 - 100% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal speaker |  |
 |
 |
 |
| Jack / headphones |  |
 |
 |
 |
SD card
When micro sd card is inserted, it can be in various states. These are indicated by the following icons:
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| No icon | No card inserted |
 |
Card detected, processing... For example when mounting, unmounting or something else. File system cannot be accessed and the card cannot be pulled out. |
 |
Card is ready |
 |
Card is mounted to a computer |
 |
Card can be ejected by user, waiting... |
 |
Card is no longer usable because of an error Card needs to be ejected and reinserted for a new attempt |
Identification
The text in the left part of the status bar is an identification of Brian and a specific hardware and firmware version you are using. This is very helpful information for the developers whenever they are addressing reported issues.
Preview: 
Beta testing: Sending feedback
Brian is currently in beta-testing phase and we want to involve the community as much as possible. We ask for feedback and bug reports and our big thank you goes to everyone who will contact us with a constructive feedback.
Feedback: GitHub issues
[ ] When we move away from beta-testing, you will be able to set a custom name or other identification for each of your Brian's. This will be displayed here.
Error animations
Empty battery
A red color fades down and out of the knob, whenever Brian's battery is too low to power on (or continue operation while powered on), it will shut itself down to prevent a battery damage. If this happens, please do not attempt to restart Brian, but rather connect a charger and wait for the battery to charge a little bit.
Brian overheating
Similar to the case of empty battery, a red color fades down and out of the knob and an error icon is shown on the display. After that, the display will stay black and Brian will shutdown. If connected to the external power, its display will stay off and the red status LED by the USB port will be blinking.
Please leave Brian to cool down.
Internal communication lost
A red inside-out animation is shown on the UI knobs and buttons. It is similar, but not the same as the power-off animation. If you see this, please report it to the developers.
[ ] Brian is internally controlled by a main processor and a co-processor. They are connected by a communication link. When this link is temporarily lost the animation is triggered. In some cases, this is an expected behavior. For example, when uploading the code to the main processor.
Co-processor crash
The knob and the buttons are solid red color. If you have sd card inserted, a log may have been created in the brian_logs directory. If you see this error, please report it to the developer, with the log file. Pressing the knob may restore Brian's operation. If not, you can trigger a force shutdown by pressing all four buttons simultaneously, while not being connected to a charger.
[ ] This state indicates a crash of the co-processor was detected. The co-processor then immediately restarts and attempts to push a log message and stack trace to the main processor, which can log this to the micro sd card, if enabled and the card is present. The knob press restarts the co-processor to a normal state, however, the problem may persist if it was caused for example by an erroneous command from the main processor and the co-processor may enter the crashed state again.