Unable to upload sketch Circuit Playground Dev Edition

[evanwill]

I just got a new Circuit Playground Dev Edition Classic, https://www.adafruit.com/product/3000

I am on Ubuntu 17.04 with Arduino IDE 1.8.3.

I plugged my Circuit Playground in to USB, it lit up with neopixel demo display. I updated my Arduino IDE and board manager and restarted. I selected the Circuit Playground board, port, and opened the Circuit Playground "Hello_NeoPixels" built in example. Clicked upload. It took unusually long (compared to uploading something to Arduino Uno), then ended in an error.

After this error, the Circuit Playground displays the green "on" led, but no longer shows up on a port. I have swapped USB cords and successfully tested uploads on other boards (an Arduino Uno). I followed the "recovery" method (verbose upload, compile blink sketch, upload, double click on Playground's Reset). Arduino IDE finds the Playground port and attempts to upload, but after awhile ends with a long series of avrdude errors and "***failed;".

Upload errors include:

avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: set addr
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: write block
avrdude: Error: butterfly programmer uses avr_write_page() but does not
provide a cmd() method.

Then it seems to write something, then give a series of fails during verification:

Reading | avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: set addr
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: set addr

Then ends with:

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
0x45 != 0x0c
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

The Playground is still green led on, and not showing up on a port.

Any clue where the problem is?
thank you

[adafruit_support_mike]

It sounds like the USB code might have crashed.

The ATmega32u4 used in the Circuit Playground handles USB internally, and sometimes the code to do that will fail. When that happens, the microcontroller can't read the signals that would normally tell it to reboot and launch the bootloader.

Fortunately it's easy to fix: enable verbose messages during upload in the Arduino IDE's Preferences pane, connect the Circuit Playground to the computer and start an upload without bothering to select a Serial Port, then when the lines beginning with 'PORTS' start scrolling past in the debug pane, double-click the Circuit Playground's reset button.

That manually forces the microcontroller to reboot and set up a new USB connection, just when the IDE is looking for a device to do that. Once they sync up, you should be able to upload normally the next time.

[evanwill]

As I said in my first post, that is what I already did.
The error messages I report above are during that "recovery" process--I plug in the Playground, upload Blink, double click Playgrounds reset, then Arduino IDE finds the Playground and attempts to actually load the sketch. However, it returns all the errors mentioned above, and is back to the same state, i.e. only the green "on" led lit and does not show up on a port. The #13 led is not blinking, so the Blink sketch is not being written.

[adafruit_support_mike]

If you power the Circuit Playground from a LiPo or a non-USB 5v supply and double-click the reset button, does the red LED pulse?

[evanwill]

I got access to a Windows 10 computer, and was able to reset and program the Playground with no problems...
After finding the Playground works on Windows, I tried programming an Adafruit Trinket board with my Ubuntu computer, and have exactly the same issues and it does not show up on a port just like the Playground.
On Ubuntu, I uninstalled Arduino IDE, installed a fresh copy and installed the Adafruit "contributed" boards from Board Manager. I am able to detect and program an Arduino Uno board perfectly. However, the errors explained above remain with Circuit Playground and Trinket.
So I guess my issue is with Adafruit boards on Arduino IDE on Linux (Ubuntu).
Is there some issue with the board info on Linux?

[adafruit_support_mike]

This thread has some information: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=114042&p=569931

See if that helps.

[wmbell65]

Hi everyone,
I am having a similar issue - I just got a circuit playground and am trying to upload a basic sketch - hello_accelerometer... I tried via my raspberry pi and was getting errors, so thought I would try using my Windows 10 machine... I am getting a very similar error.... I see the following errors ( see attached file for full log) - when I first got it, I was getting the blinking neo-pixel led pattern however when I was going through "tutorial 0", I did a reset (single click of the reset button) after that point, when I plug it in, I get the ON LED as green, DT3 is solid RED and the 10 neo-pixel LEDs are a solid green. I am using the 1.8.4 Arduino IDE and have updated all of the libraries. I have tried double clicking the reset button without success.:

Connecting to programmer: .avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding

avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
Found programmer: Id = ""; type = H
Software Version = è.t; Hardware Version = “.ð
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: buffered memory access not supported. Maybe it isn't
a butterfly/AVR109 but a AVR910 device?
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: leave prog mode
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: exit bootloader

avrdude done. Thank you.

the selected serial port
does not exist or your board is not connected

[adafruit_support_mike]

Just to check: do you have the Circuit Playground Classic, or the Circuit Playground Express?

[wmbell65]

Hi MIke,

I have the Circuit Playground Express.... I managed to resolve the issue last night...I was doing more digging last night and found another post which said to check the board type. I had chosen the wrong board type... when I chose the Circuit Playground Express from the SMD list, everything seems to have worked in that I was able to reset the board and upload the demo sketch. I am going to try a few other sketches this evening and if everything is working, then on to my actual project...

Thanks for responding.

[adafruit_support_mike]

Glad to hear you got it working!