Ardunio IDE Port Issue

cgraham07

I have been doing a trial run for using the Quarto as a PID. I have run into a recurring issue. Every once in a while, I get an error when uploading code to the Quarto. It is similar to the problem in the forum post "Arduino IDE Failure to Upload / Disconnect on Upload". I will have Arduino IDE uploading to the port that the Quarto is on and it works for a while each time I upload. However, I seem to randomly get an error "No device found on COM1" (for example) and "Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1". My Quarto is on a different port (say COM6), and it seems to have switched to a serial port. I have to go back into Tools -> Ports and change the port back to COM6 from the serial port it randomly switched to. It does not happen every time I try to upload, it is seemingly random. Restarting the computer, Arudino IDE, or switching computers altogether, has not stopped this issue.

Additionally, I had another USB port connection problem. At one point, I got the same error. But when I went to switch back to the Quarto port, it was not there. I checked the device manager, and the Quarto was not visible on there either. Nothing had physically changed, it was still physically connected. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, which did not help. I ended up switching computers, which worked. I have only one Quarto, connected to the computer directly via the USB cable that came with the Quarto.

If you have any insight into these two issues, it would be greatly appreciated.

Ben

Sorry for late reply, there was a bug on the forum so I didn't get a notification about your post. Very sorry about that.

I'm assuming you are Windows? I think this is a bug involving the Arduino IDE and how Windows handles COM ports. Basically when you program the Quarto, it reboots and briefly its USB connection disappears. It then re-appears. The Arduino IDE should re-set the programming port to what it was set to before when the Quarto re-appears. But if the Windows takes too long to enumerate USB or sometimes puts the Quarto's two ports out of order, the IDE gives up reconnecting to the original port and instead sets it to some other port (in your case COM1) as the programming port. Then when you click upload, it tries to program on COM1 at if fails. You should be able to fix this by going to Tools, Port and selecting the right port under 'qnimble ports'.

Sadly, after any reprograming, there's a chance this will happen again. If you look in the lower right, the IDE will show what port it is set to and if that changes to COM1, you'll know you need to reset it.

I'm sorry I don't have a better solution right now. I have a bug report in the Arduino IDE, but it has stalled.

One work-around is to use the command line tool for Arduino, arduino-cli to compile / upload instead. With that you can run on the command line:

arduino-cli.exe compile -b qnimble:imxrt:quarto  YourProgram.ino && arduino-cli.exe upload -b qnimble:imxrt:quarto  YourProgram.ino -p COMXX

and it will compile and then upload your sketch to the port you select.

I hope this helps. I think this is what's going on with your first issue. With the second, its hard to say if it seems to be working on one computer and not another. If you are using a USB hub, I would try connecting to the Quarto directly to the computer and see if that makes a difference. I've occasionally seen issues with some USB hubs doing weird things to device communication. Also, when this happens, does Windows give you a message about a USB device failure? If so, what is the message?

cgraham07

Ben Thanks for the reply and the insight on the first issue. I will try the work-around.
As for the second issue, I was not using a USB hub, it was plugged directly into the computer. There was no error message. It is hard to say what the cause was since I switched computers, but that was the only solution at the time, since I could not restart the computer itself at the time (other things were running on it). This only happened the once, so hopefully it was a one-off and it does not happen again.