More on Pi_Lite problems

I made a movie to demonstrate the problems with my Pi_Lite. As you can see, all text-based output, even through minicom fails. All other functions work correctly. I'm using 2013-05-25-wheezy-raspbian-ciseco.img disk image with the https://github.com/CisecoPlc/PiLite Python examples installed.

Problems with Pi_Lite

I've just received a Pi-Lite from Pimoroni and can't get any text-scrolling activity to work. All the Python examples that don't involve text output (e.g. pacman) work fine but anything like the stock ticker doesn't work.

Even basic text stuff using minicom does not produce any sensible output on the leds. When you hit any key  in minicom, it does not echo it back on the terminal, instead the single horizontal and vertical lines slide across the matrix and then it displays "Pi LITE' (this is the same squence as when the Pi is first powered-up). If I use any of the $$$ commands then they work fine. It's just text output that fails.

I've followed all the instructions I could find and even tried using the dedicated
Ciseco Wheezy image, but get the same behaviour.

I notice that all the boards in the instructions seem to be v1.0. My board has V1.1 printed on it, and minicom reports v1.2  Perhaps  there is some difference in the versions that might affect things?

Any suggestions for something else I can try?