Can't find COM1

#1

Hi,

Just received the ArduBerry and tried it out using the Getting started page. I’m really excited to get this puppy running!

All is fine until i try to upload the Blink sketch. My Arduino IDE claims it can’t find the serial port COM1 (strange name for a Linux serial port anyway!).

I chose the Raspberry GPIO to the the port. The Board was set to Uno, which i tried in different settings but to no success.

I see two possible reasons for this, neither of which i have tested (well, three, if you factor in my general incompetence and drive for screwing things up in unexpected ways). Either the PSU is too small. I’ve had Raspies go weird on me before with too puny power supplies. I ran this setup with a small 1A phone charger, which is identical to all the other Pis that work alright. Or then it’s because i installed the Arduino IDE before running the setup script.

So is it either of these perhaps? Too small PSU? Environment should be installed on a “clean” Raspbian setup? Something completely different?

#2

I’ve had the same problem, Ive added a power supply to the barrel power connector. Which worked I’ve added a motor shield and I’m back to the can’t find COM1 error.

I’ve uploaded using programmer which doesn’t complain. but my python script can’t connect to com1

python connect.py -p /dev/ttyACM0 -b 9600
— TCP/IP to Serial redirector — type Ctrl-C / BREAK to quit
— /dev/ttyACM0 9600,8,N,1 —
Could not open serial port /dev/ttyACM0: could not open port /dev/ttyACM0: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘/dev/ttyACM0’

I’ve tried adding your user to the groups tty and dialout like so:
sudo usermod -a -G tty yourUserName
sudo usermod -a -G dialout yourUserName

still no joy

#3

At least your script says /dev/ttyACM0, not COM1… But judging from your reply, i see you have been able to upload stuff to your Ardberry at some stage. When you say programmer, do you still mean that you’ve connected the Ardberry to the GPIO pins of the Pi, or did you program it using another Arduino? And if the former, how did you power the Ardberry?

And why am i calling it Ardberry when it’s really an ArduBerry? :slight_smile:

#4

Hi,
Try uploading using the programmer. Press CTRL+SHIFT+U instead of pressing upload. Hope that this helps. If it still does not work, please let me know.

Thanks,
Karan

#5

llauren,

you should see this menu item (attachment) on the arduino ide…

#6

Hi Karan,

what is the port from the Raspberry Pi side?

#7

Hi,
The serial port is ttyAMA0. This might be helpful to access the serial data. http://www.dexterindustries.com/Arduberry/how-to-program-the-arduberry/

Thanks,
Karan

#8

Or go to tools, then click upload using programmer. Not sure why my com1 won’t work either.

#9

Ah! I found the menu item and --lo & behold!-- i don’t get the error message anymore!

The Arduberry doesn’t seem to have a LED on pin 13, so i can’t actually confirm that it’s blinking before i get an actual LED but i still deem this progress.

I’m now running the Pi + Arduberry on a two amp PSU. Not sure if this makes any difference. And i obviously didn’t read the fine documentation, but in all honesty, i don’t even know where i should find it. Thanks anyway for the help!

#10

Great success! I connected an LED + resistor between pin 13 and ground, and i now have a blinky led! Oh the joy!

#11

The tutorial seems to be missing a few important bits:

  • Must connect a USB cable from Pi to Arduberry. Without that I get an error from the ctrl-Shift-U compile that it cannot find a USB device.

  • Setting the COM port - the com port menu item is greyed out (with or without USB cable connected). With the USB cable connected, ctrl-Shift-U gives me the cannot find COM port error discussed in this thread.

  • A note about USB vs using GPIO pins to access Arduberry is needed in the getting started bc folks will be testing the Blink sketch before reading the Programming guide that Karan references.

Programming Arduberry guide needs update:

  • I do not have an option to set Programmer to Raspberry PI GPIO on my installation. At this point I’m unable to upload via USB or GPIO.

General observations (will find the right thread for these later):

  • Arduberry would be more flexible if the processor and socket were on top rather than under. I am using my Pi in a low profile SunFounder case. Chip under creates an interference fit unless the Pi is used case-less. This would be true of any of the low profile cases, and using the Pi exposed isn’t good practice IMO.

  • Differences between Arduberry and Arduino such as “no LED on pin 13” need to be noted in the getting started guide if for no other reason than the sample sketch will not work “out of the box”. Having also used GrovePi and encountered similar “surprise” differences from Grove Base in that case, IMO this is an issue that Dexter needs to address across their product line.

#12

After re-running the install script and picking up multiple updates in the process, I am now able to select Raspberry PI GPIO. The Serial Port menu item remains greyed out / not selectable. The Blink script compiles and uploads successfully.

No led blinks. I will try llauren’s solution (see earlier post in this thread) with led and resistor next. Also will explore how to reference the two green leds that are solid-on when my unit boots. Assuming one is “power on”, I’m guessing the other is addressable?

#13
General observations (will find the right thread for these later):

  • Arduberry would be more flexible if the processor and socket were on top rather than under. I am using my Pi in a low profile SunFounder case. Chip under creates an interference fit unless the Pi is used case-less. This would be true of any of the low profile cases, and using the Pi exposed isn’t good practice IMO.

  • Differences between Arduberry and Arduino such as “no LED on pin 13″ need to be noted in the getting started guide if for no other reason than the sample sketch will not work “out of the box”. Having also used GrovePi and encountered similar “surprise” differences from Grove Base in that case, IMO this is an issue that Dexter needs to address across their product line.

Hey Nexuswest,
We really appreciate the design input, in particular these two last comments. They’re good advice and when we come back to improving on the Arduberry design, we’ll consider putting the processor on top. Our original thinking was that it provided support for the board when used without a case and since it’s impossible to design a case for this (who knows how many shields a user might want to use or what size they would be) we assumed this would be used un-cased.

Also, appreciate your feedback about the differences. We’ll try to make that more apparent in the documentation.

Thanks again. John

#14

Hi nexuswest,
Just wanted to ask you more about a few things:

  • Is there a specific reason for connecting the USB cable from the Arduberry to the Raspberry Pi because we only have the Power connected on the USB line. The power should be supplied from the 26 pin header and there should be no need to connect the USB. The only reason that the USB is there is to use the Arduberry without the Raspberry Pi in standalone use.
  • I had posted about how to solve the Serial port issue in the other post. I hope that helped you getting the serial port to work.
  • We have made a note on the problems that you had faced with the Getting started guide and will update the page to make it more user friendly.
#15

Hi Karan,

The USB cable was one of my attempts along the way to get connectivity. Once I found the GPIO solution, the USB idea wasn’t needed.

The fix for the Serial Port issue worked great! Implemented it. Thanks!

Thanks for updating docs/etc I’m attempting to describe as clearly as possible, as I’ve really had some rough startup experiences with this. I definitely appreciate your quick support/response. Gotta say that your support is very good.