Hi guys,
I have just received a few Moteinos and I'm having all sorts of trouble getting them connected to my computer so I can program them.
I have the latest Arduino IDE (1.6.4) installed.
When I connect either a Moteino-USB or a standard Moteino (via FTDI adaptor), my computer says the device is not recognised. If I go into device manager then sure enough there is the evil little icon. I have tried telling the drivers to update and directing them to the Arduino drivers folder but that does not solve the issue.
Any ideas?
Cheers
From what I've seen around the web is the best thing to do is uninstall Arduino 1.6.4, reboot your computer, and install IDE 1.6.3 instead. I've seen nothing but troubles with this version. Whether that's your problem, I don't know, but you shouldn't have any issues with moteinos with a good Arduino IDE installation.
Tom
Still no luck :(
I have tried a UNO, Duemilanove, and a Trinket and they all work.
Are there some different drivers that I need from somewhere perhaps?
Quote from: Naarlack on May 16, 2015, 08:44:23 PM
Still no luck :(
other than trying other boards did you uninstall IDE 1.6.4 as suggested?
Yes, uninstalled 1.6.4 then restarted and installed 1.6.3
No change in the symptoms after doing this.
An entry labelled 'FT231X USB UART' appears in device manager but I can't seem to get it to recognise it as a Moteino.
Another thing to try is a different USB cable. The short 6" cables work best. I've had a number of funny connection problems traced to the cable.
Sounds like a driver issue.
I still like IDE 1.0.6 better than anything beyond.
Sounds like the 1.6.4 over wrote your ftdi device drivers. Download the latest from ftdi.Com (VCP version), unzip to your system, uninstall the driver you currently have, and
load new drivers from the directory you downloaded to.
Installing the latest drivers did the trick.
Thanks for your helps guys :)
May have spoken too soon actually.
The Moteino-USB works OK, but connecting to the standard Moteino via the FTDI adaptor does not seem to work.
I have tried a short USB cable. It just appears in device manager as an unknown USB device.
Try another computer, OS.
What FTDI adaptor are you using?
Pulled out my old laptop with Windows Vista and Arduino 1.0.5 and everything worked perfectly first time ::)
I'm using the LPL FTDI adaptor naturally :)
Perhaps I should downgrade my Arduino version on my main computer? You said 1.0.6 is working well for you?
That's what I use regularly because it still has some features I like and need.
1.6.4 should also work just fine.
So I have done a bit more investigating... 8)
The only way I have been able to get the FTDI adaptor to work (i.e. show up as a COM port rather than 'unknown device') is if I plug it in through a USB hub I had laying around. Any idea why that might be? Have any ideas to fix it?
It's not a huge issue to just use the USB hub but curious as to what is going on.
Cheers again to everybody for their help :D
Is it an older LPL FTDIAdapter? Can you post a photo of it?
I ordered it earlier this year so I don't think so. It says R2 on it.
Photo is attached.
Yes this is the latest version as of now. Please try another computer and let's see the results. People had bad USB ports, bad cables, bad drivers. Lots of things can be at fault. Even the adapter itself. But they are all tested on a known good computer before they are sent out. So between here and there something happened, or maybe not (likely not but possibly). Let's try finding the problem by elimination.
It works on my old laptop fine.
But only works when I use it through a USB hub on my main PC. It is not a problem really; I'll just use the hub. But I was curious why it works with the hub but not when I plug in directly to the USB port on the front of the computer.
Probably something faulty in that USB on the front of your computer?
I see this again and again.
Quote from: Naarlack on June 17, 2015, 08:12:44 PM
It works on my old laptop fine.
But only works when I use it through a USB hub on my main PC. It is not a problem really; I'll just use the hub. But I was curious why it works with the hub but not when I plug in directly to the USB port on the front of the computer.
That it works on a powered Hub and a laptop seems to indicate that the device is consuming more that 100mA at the time of enumeration. The USB spec says that ports don't need to supply more that 100mA to any port until the device enumerates as tells the OS how much power it needs. PCs generally adhere to this spec, Laptops don't always as they tend to have features like using USB ports as device charging ports, and powered hubs simply supply full power because its cheaper to do it that way...
Tom
Thanks Tom for the explanation.
I see a difference here though. MoteinoUSB works fine (essentially FTDI+Moteino in 1 board). FTDI + regular Moteino does not work.
I wonder if the FTDI alone enumerates and the problem is only at upload time? That could explain the issues with these PC USB ports.
Quote from: Felix on June 18, 2015, 09:02:11 AM
Thanks Tom for the explanation.
I see a difference here though. MoteinoUSB works fine (essentially FTDI+Moteino in 1 board). FTDI + regular Moteino does not work.
I wonder if the FTDI alone enumerates and the problem is only at upload time? That could explain the issues with these PC USB ports.
The key is whether the FTDI chip disables power to the device until enumeration is complete (assuming that the combined power is greater than 100mA). With a Moteino, the power consumption on power up could be > 100mA if the radio is in some powered on state, seems unlikely, but still... What may be more likely is that the combined capacitance of the device is such that there is a >100mA surge when it's first plugged into the port. This could cause the enumeration to fail, it also tends to cause rather random effects depending on which system it's plugged into. DAMHIKT! ;)
With the Moteino it's relatively easy to solve - plug the cable into the computer BEFORE connecting to the Moteino. The FTDI dongle enumerates properly and then the Moteino can be powered from the cable. The Moteino USB doesn't allow this approach.
Tom