METRO ESP32-S3: unable to upload

[stan12]

Arduino IDE 1.8.19, board METRO ESP32-S3 N16R8 Tiny
Tools/Board Selected: "Adafruit MetroESP32-S3"
Port: "COM15(Adafruit MetroESP32-S3)"
Example 'Blink'
On upload:
2 warnings '<command-line>: warning: ISO C++11 requires whitespace after the macro name'
After that multiple lines:
PORTS {COM15, } / {COM15, } => {}
Finally:

Code: Select all

esptool.py v4.6
Serial port COM15
A fatal error occurred: Could not open COM15, the port doesn't exist
A fatal error occurred: Could not open COM15, the port doesn't exist
Error while setting serial port parameters: 115,200 N 8 1

Screenshot 2025-01-08 214256.jpg (93.64 KiB) Viewed 51 times

Help please?

Update:
followed instructions on 'Manual bootload mode':

Press and hold the BOOT/DFU button down. Don't let go of it yet!
Press and release the Reset button. You should still have the BOOT/DFU button pressed while you do this.
Now you can release the BOOT/DFU button.

New COM-port appeared, switched to it and the sketch was uploaded eventually.

After that tried uploading again in a regular mode - same issue as above.

What does this mean?

[adafruit_support_carter]

It sounds like you are dealing with this general issue:
https://learn.adafruit.com/dude-where-s-my-com-port
(the Metro ESP32-S3 has native USB)

After doing this step:

New COM-port appeared, switched to it and the sketch was uploaded eventually.

double check what COM port shows up, what number it is, etc.

[stan12]

Per Adafruit instructions, switching to manual bootload mode is required only once and after that upload should be working in a regular mode.
So either by board is broken, or Adafruit is wrong and they deliver Metro ESP32 boards that DO NO switch to load mode automatically and they always need to upload sketch from manual bootload mode.

[adafruit_support_carter]

Needing to manually revert to bootloader is also sometimes needed to recover from a weird state. I think that guide covers that also? (user sketch interferes with native USB)

If you use the process that works and then upload the Blink example:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-met ... uino-blink
It should get the board back to a known good state. You can then test that by double checking the COM port, changing the blink rate value in the sketch, and try re-uploading the Blink sketch a second time. Does it upload OK? Does the blink rate change as expected?

[stan12]

Switching to manual boot uploads the sketch successfully.
After that trying to upload in a regular mode - HAVE THE SAME ERROR.
PLEASE AUTHORIZE THE RETURN/REFUND OF THIS ITEM!

[adafruit_support_carter]

I think a replacement would behave the same way. The hardware seems to be generally working. The issue is most likely with the native USB behavior. Another test would be to try the behavior on a 2nd PC to see if it might be related to some 3rd party software interfering with the COM port. But it could be other things and would take some time to generally figure things out.

If you want a refund, send an email to [email protected] with a link to this thread and they can refund for the Metro.

[stan12]

update: refund received.
Good return policy, Adafruit, but try to deliver only products that were properly developed and tested.
This was the first out of my total 20 orders(in 12 years) from Adafruit that I had to return.