21 replies to this topic

[mattiep321]

Will plugging in my 9v power supply to the barrel connector while plugged into the usb port turn it into a brick? I'm trying to write an app for the 16x2 LCD and I'm a newb to this (Programming & Electronics). I tried connecting just with the USB cable and using MFDeploy.exe and the hardware doesn't show up when I select USB. What should I do?

[Chris Walker]

Hi mattiep321, You can safely plug in both the AC power and USB at the same time. No problem there. Unplug everything from your Netduino--including USB and power and all wires/shields. Then...if you hold down the pushbutton on your Netduino while plugging it in via USB, does it show up on your PC? Chris

[jdsmith]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think I'm in the same boat. I assume if the board does NOT show up when plugging in via USB with the push button down, the board is dead? My computer pops a toast message that says "Unable to recognize USB device." Power light comes on the board, though.

[Dan Morphis]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think I'm in the same boat. I assume if the board does NOT show up when plugging in via USB with the push button down, the board is dead? My computer pops a toast message that says "Unable to recognize USB device." Power light comes on the board, though.

I've found the N+ to be surprisingly resilient. I've had the PTC fuse kick in on me a half dozen times, I've drawn *WAY* more current than I should have through the pins, etc and the board still works, and all the pins still work.

If the power light comes on and stays on and Windows says "Unrecognized USB device", you are probably in firmware load mode. See this video for details on how to reload your firmware.

[jdsmith]

thanks, dan. i'll give it a shot.

[jdsmith]

Thanks, again, Dan. My board must be dead. When I run the Atmel app, it doesn't show my USB connection as a COM port...just shows COM3 which is not the USB connection to the Netduino. Maybe there's a way to manually add the USB connection as a COM port?

[Dan Morphis]

Thanks, again, Dan. My board must be dead. When I run the Atmel app, it doesn't show my USB connection as a COM port...just shows COM3 which is not the USB connection to the Netduino. Maybe there's a way to manually add the USB connection as a COM port?

Its been a while since I've flashed mine, I believe I had to manually specify the com port of the Netduino board. I've only flashed once as well. Chris will a lot more about the whole process.

I doubt its dead, unless you've managed to short out a bunch of wires on the board, or feed it a high voltage in through one of the pins. I've yet to kill my board, and I've done a lot of the "Don't do this or you will fry your board things" by accident.

[jdsmith]

In the counter intuitive "good news" department, I can't get SAM-BA to connect to a "good" Netduino board (it's a straight-up Netduino board and not an N+) which makes me think there's a problem with my configuration. One thing I noticed while reading through the SAM-BA documentation...under Windows 7, looks like the board will only connect to SAM-BA via USB CDC? Did you have to do anything to set that up? When I connect my Netduino board and run SAM-BA, I don't see that connection's COM port in the drop down list.

[Fred]

I've found SAM-BA connection to be flaky at the best of times. Often takes me quite a few goes.

[Dan Morphis]

In the counter intuitive "good news" department, I can't get SAM-BA to connect to a "good" Netduino board (it's a straight-up Netduino board and not an N+) which makes me think there's a problem with my configuration.

One thing I noticed while reading through the SAM-BA documentation...under Windows 7, looks like the board will only connect to SAM-BA via USB CDC? Did you have to do anything to set that up? When I connect my Netduino board and run SAM-BA, I don't see that connection's COM port in the drop down list.

If I recall correctly, I had to grab the COM port out of device manager and pop it into SAM-BA. I am on a Win7 64bit laptop. And like Fred said, SAM-BA seems to be a bit weird. I had to manually configure everything.

[jdsmith]

Thanks, guys. Still no luck. I'm also running Win7-64. Going to give 32-bit a shot tomorrow...feels like I might be fighting a SAM-BA driver issue in 64-bit.

[Dan Morphis]

Thanks, guys. Still no luck. I'm also running Win7-64. Going to give 32-bit a shot tomorrow...feels like I might be fighting a SAM-BA driver issue in 64-bit.

If your using the latest version of SAM-BA, then 64 bit shouldn't be an issue. I run 64 bit and have no issues w/ SAM-BA...

[CW2]

In the counter intuitive "good news" department, I can't get SAM-BA to connect to a "good" Netduino board (it's a straight-up Netduino board and not an N+) which makes me think there's a problem with my configuration.

I am not sure I understand you correctly, but you cannot use SAM-BA to connect to a "good" Netduino board - in order to be able to connect via SAM-BA, you'd have to perform full erase of the Netduino board (i.e. connect the erase pad to 3.3V for at least 220 ms). After re-plugging the USB cable, the board will appear as a virtual COM port and then you can use SAM-BA tools to connect and upload (flash) the bootloader (TinyBooterDecompressor.bin).

[Fred]

SAM-BA 2.09 on Win7-64 for me. 2.10 didn't work.

[Chris Walker]

Hi jdsmith, To echo what CW2 said...to reflash your Netduino's bootloader using SAM-BA you'll need to erase your board. To do this, connect a jumper wire between the 3.3V header and the gold ERASE pad (just below digital pin 0) for at least 300ms. But before you do that...try holding down the pushbutton on your Netduino while plugging it into your PC. This will force it into TinyBooter mode and will give you the opportunity to ping it and erase your current app using MFDeploy. If the board isn't recognized when you plug it in while holding down the pushbutton, then try erasing and reflashing. [Also, SAM-BA is a bit harder to work with on 64-bit Windows 7. I personally installed Windows XP Mode and use it from inside there...works well.] Chris

[mattiep321]

Sorry all for the late reply...the old Windows 7 reboot fixed the problem. The hardware would show up in the device manager, but Win 7 wouldn't allow comms to it for some reason: VS2010 and MFDeploy were both unable to see or communicate until I rebooted. I'm all set now though. Thanks all!

[Chris Walker]

Sorry all for the late reply...the old Windows 7 reboot fixed the problem. The hardware would show up in the device manager, but Win 7 wouldn't allow comms to it for some reason: VS2010 and MFDeploy were both unable to see or communicate until I rebooted.

I'm all set now though. Thanks all!

I suppose that we should suggest reboot first! The other thing to keep in mind is that only one program can access your Netduino for deployment at the same time. So if you have a copy of MFDeploy "connected" to your Netduino or Visual Studio trying to debug a program on your Netduino...those may attach and take over the port before you have a chance to connect to it elsewhere.

Chris

[jdsmith]

Hi jdsmith,

[Also, SAM-BA is a bit harder to work with on 64-bit Windows 7. I personally installed Windows XP Mode and use it from inside there...works well.]

Chris

Thanks, Chris. I'm pretty certain I've followed Dan's/other's instructions, and still no luck. I've definitely erased the board, or at least I followed the "plug a wire in to the 3.3v slot/touch the gold pad" steps many times. I haven't tried on a computer running straight-up XP (yet), but I did try a 32-bit version of Windows 7 this afternoon. I made it a little farther but got a blue screen when trying to install the ATMEL Test Board driver. I also tried running in XP compatibility last night, but the USB device would not show up in the XP device manager. Maybe that's an indicator the board is dead. Rebooted dozens and dozens of times. I also tried your recommendation in another thread of booting Win7 into "allow unsigned driver" mode, but that didn't seem to have an effect.

To recap, when I plug the N+ board in via USB, Windows pops a toast message saying Windows can't recognize the USB device. The PWR and LED lights on the N+ stay lit up. If I look in device manager, I see an "Unknown Device" under the USB node (I don't see a corresponding COM port under the Ports node). I've tried installing the SAM-BA CDC driver (this is outlined in the SAM-BA readme file), but one of two things happens: blue screen (in the case of 32-bit Win7) or a message saying the driver isn't compatible with the version of Windows I'm running (I consistently see this message in Win7 64; I saw the message in Win7 32, but it was reversed...the message said the driver wasn't made for the 32-bit version of Win 7; I believe the driver compat issue has something to do with the SAM-BA install which seems smart enough to know when it's running in XP mode and install the XP-compatible drivers).

Should I have to install the ATMEL driver? Or is that an indicator of a more serious problem with the board?

JS

[jdsmith]

SAM-BA 2.09 on Win7-64 for me. 2.10 didn't work.

Cool. Is there an archived version of 2.09 somewhere?

[Chris Walker]

Cool. Is there an archived version of 2.09 somewhere?

Go to:
http://www.atmel.com...sp?tool_id=3759

Download:
AT91-ISP.exe (Windows XP - v1.13 current release)
(3 MB, revision 1.13, updated 6/09)
Install files for the AT91 ISP. Includes SAM-BA package.
http://www.atmel.com...1-ISP_v1.13.exe

Chris