After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

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lymerae
 
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After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by lymerae »

Hi there, I'm running into a problem with my Flora. When I first set it up, I was able to select it in the Arduino IDE (choosing Flora under boards and then selecting the COM4 port where my Flora was plugged in). Now, for reasons I can't understand, the Flora is no longer showing up. The "Port" option is grayed out in the Arduino IDE, and the Flora is not showing up as a recognized device on Windows 10 anywhere I can see. Did I maybe break the board somehow in a very strange and specific way?

* All drivers have been installed, the correct link has been added in board manager, etc. - I feel like this part has to be right because I got Flora to work previously.
* I am using the same micro-USB cable and have also tried multiple different micro-USB cables.
* I've tried restarting the Arduino IDE, resetting the Flora board, unplugging and re-plugging the USB cable, etc.
* Right now my only other computer is a Mac, but I can't get the Flora to show up there either (I had not tried it on that computer previously).
* The only thing that changed was that I tried to add a button to switch modes - I wired this button input to ground, VBATT, and data pin #6, then removed it when I could no longer select the Flora, but the problem persisted.
* Other than not appearing on Windows 10 or in the Arduino IDE, the Flora seems to be working fine - green light appears, red light pulses when you hit the reset button, and the existing program (rainbow code for neopixel strips) runs as before.

Any thoughts? Would appreciate any advice!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Is there any LED activity when you press the reset button?
I wired this button input to ground, VBATT, and data pin #6
What type of button was it? Can you post a photo or diagram of how it was connected?

lymerae
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:04 pm

Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by lymerae »

Yes, pressing the reset button leads to the red light pulsing for about 15 seconds until the LED strand starts its current sequence (rainbow from the strandtest) over. It does this when it's on battery power and when it's plugged into my PC, but not when it's plugged into the Mac (then reset gets no response). I forgot to mention, also, when it's plugged into my PC, there's a split second where the rainbow sequence starts, and then all the neopixel lights go to red.

Unfortunately no photos. I can try to draw a diagram later, but for now, it was:
VBATT: 5V neopixel strand + 5V neopixel strand + 5V button
Ground: GND neopixel strand + GND neopixel strand
Second Ground: GND button
#12: Din neopixel strand + Din neopixel strand
#6: Data button

The button was a little 4-pin one that came with an official Arduino beginner's kit.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Does it look something like this?
Image

lymerae
 
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Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by lymerae »

Yep, exactly!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

OK. Although those buttons have 4 pins, there are really only 2 connections. They are connected internally as shown by the red lines in the photo below:

Depending on how you made the 3 connections, there are 3 possible scenarios:
a) The Data button could be shorted to GND. This would not harm anything, but the code would not work as expected.
b) The Data button could be shorted to 5v. This would probably damage the Data button and may or may not cause further internal damage to the Flora.
c) The 5v pin could be shorted to GND. This would cause an immediate shutdown and overload your power supply. It would not likely cause any damage to the Flora itself.

Do any of the leds on the Flora light up when you plug it in?
What about if you press the reset button?
Image

lymerae
 
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:04 pm

Re: After working, Flora has vanished from Arduino IDE

Post by lymerae »

Ok, thanks for that info, it's really helpful. I was adding the button on the advice of someone much more experienced with Arduino and didn't realize that it could cause damage if connected incorrectly.

Yes, the LEDs on the Flora work just as before. The green LED lights up when it's connected to power (via computer USB or the soldered battery), and when I push reset, the red LED pulses slowly until the Flora resets.

The fact that all is working as expected with the physical Flora and with its current loaded code (rainbow function directed to Neopixel strands) makes me think that option (B) is likely.

The button is no longer connected, by the way - it's been removed and the problem persists. Could future damage still appear? That is, could the Flora stop working entirely at some point even if it seems to work fine now?

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