Dead Arduino?

[Tom Lake]

While trying to use the serial board with the FDC, I seem to have blown my Arduino. When I connect the programming port to a USB port on the PC, the device is recognized with no error showing in Device Manager but I can't get any menus to show up in TeraTerm on the PC. I do have the correct COM port and baud set. No combination of switches shows anything on TeraTerm. I figured the sketch may have been corrupted so I fired up the Arduino IDE. The Altair sketch compiles OK but when it goes to upload I get

Arduino: 1.8.19 (Windows 10), Board: "Arduino Due (Programming Port)"
Sketch uses 513320 bytes (97%) of program storage space. Maximum is 524288 bytes.
No device found on COM4
An error occurred while uploading the sketch

Get Board Info shows:

BN: Arduino Due (Programming Port)
VID: 2341
PID: 003d
SN: 85138313034351F06120

Am I hosed?

[da...@hansels.net]

I have abused my Due(s) quite a bit with short circuits and everything but never managed to really fry one.

I would try the following:

1) Pull the Due out of the AD and try to program it like that.

2) Try programming via the Native USB port. Make sure to select the native port in the "Boards" menu of the Arduino IDE

Did you ever try the serial card on its own before trying it together with the FDC card?
It almost sounds like there's an issue with the serial card since you know the FDC card works.

David

[Tom Lake]

I just tried it out of the AD. Still the same. It shows up as COM4 but when I try to upload to it, it says it's not found. I tried both the programming port and the native port.

It's strange. I can use DEPOSIT/DEPOSIT NEXT and EXAMINE/EXAMINE NEXT properly but when I examine the location where I had a CDBL ROM stored

(FFF0h) I get garbage. It doesn't seem to be able to access the SD card, either.

[Tom Lake]

BTW, All the time I was trying to get the serial card to work, I never checked the jumper on the internal backplane. It was set to Arduino rather than Regulator! Could drawing too much power

from the Arduino cause the problems I'm having now?

[da...@hansels.net]

If the EXAMINE and DEPOSIT switches work then clearly the Due is not dead.

Can you run kill-the-bit? 

Note that all configurations settings, including the installed ROMS are saved on the SD card.

If the Due can't read the SD card then it will just use its default configuration with the

primary serial port on USB programming port at 115200 baud. Do you get a response

on the terminal with that setting? Investigate if there is some issue with the SD card or the reader.

[Tom Lake]

David,

I have a Due on order. If it solves my problems, I'll send you my current one at no cost to you if you'd like to play with it.

As I said, it has partial functionality. DEPOSIT/DEPOSIT NEXT, EXAMINE/EXAMINE NEXT, RUN, STOP all work but there's 

no connection to the SD card and it doesn't connect to a PC properly. The COM port shows up in Device Manager but 

the Arduino IDE can't find it and neither can a terminal program.

If you like tinkering and debugging, this ought to be fun for you!

[Chris Davis]

I don't know about the rest of your problems, but I've seen the "No device found on COMx" issue before.  Hold down the reset button (on the Due, not the front panel) until right before it starts uploading.  It may take a couple tries to get the timing right.

[Russell Lait]

I have had issues with some boards where the boot loader gets into a bad state that essentially bricks the board to the point where power cycles and resets don't seem to do anything.  The board otherwise looks like it should work, but it just won't do anything useful.  One fix that I have found when the board is not really dead is to put it into bootloader mode by double pressing the reset button right after applying power.   (the reset on the Arduino itself)

Normally upon power up the board would run whatever code it has in memory, but in Bootloader mode, it will simply wait for new code to be uploaded.  This gives you an opportunity to reload the board and hopefully unbrick it.  You can do a test and load something simple just to test that the board comes back to life, and then if it does you can reload it with the Altair code.  If it does not come back to life your board is likely toast.

Best,

Russell

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[Tom Lake]

I seem to have fixed my problem. It turns out that I had a number of hidden Due Programming Ports on my machine leftover from all the other AltairDuinos I've built.

The new Due kept grabbing one of those ports. After I deleted all the old ports and manually assigned the Due a port number, the flash proceeded normally.

Why the conflict, I don't know but since it's working now (after I bought a new one to replace it!) I'm not going to worry too much about it.

On Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 8:06:10 PM UTC-5 Tom Lake wrote:

[Chris Davis]

Nice find.  I keep having to clear out my "serial port cache" because every time I program a Due, the port increments.  I typically get up to COM300 and clear it.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

That's weird.  What OS keeps incrementing the COM ports?  My Win10 setup is always the same ports for the same devices.  

When I disconnect a device and plug in another, the new one might have the same COM# as the last, but then when I switch back everything is on the original COM port.  

.

[Tom Lake]

300?!? Wow, that must be some kind of record!

[Tom Lake]

I have Win 11 insider version 22623.1020

[Chris Davis]

> What OS keeps incrementing the COM ports?  My Win10 setup is always the same ports for the same devices.  

They're not the same devices (at least for me.)  They are unique Arduino Dues.

[Tom Lake]

Yes, me, too. I used the Arduino Dues from multiple AltairDuino kits and each one was seen as new hardware.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Although I've only been connecting four Arduino boards to my PC (two Altair-Duino Pros and two Arduino DUEs ... one with SWTPC sim) they always just keep their COM port #s the same unless something else already has that COM port #.  

Current used USB ports:  

  4 TTGO VGA32 #2     SpeechBox (normally) 

44 Altair-Duino Pro #2

57Altair-Duino Pro #1

10 Altair 8800c Console

11 UnUsed on Altair 8800c 4-Port USB cable  (Waiting for the IMSAI/Cromemco ZPU Computer)

12 UnUsed on Altair 8800c 4-Port USB cable  (Waiting for the IMSAI/Cromemco ZPU Computer)

13 SpeechBox (today)  

28 IMSAI-JAIR

  9 FDC+ Serial Drive Server

14  TTGO VGA32 #1

So far COM4 is the only one that gets clobbered by the 2nd TTGO VGA32 if the SpeechBox isn't connected.  0

[Chris Davis]

Yes, each individual Arduino Due keeps it's own COM port, but each unique Arduino Due is assigned a new port.