Metro mini no longer detected via USB

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JD209
 
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Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

Good morning,

Yesterday (9/10) I received a new Metro Mini 328 - Arduino-Compatible - 5V 16MHz[ID:2590] (Order Confirmation No: 2915297-9703650821) along with a new USB A to Micro-B cable (3 foot long) [ID:592]. I soldered the headers onto the board, downloaded the Arduino IDE and both the recommended FTDI VCP drivers and the SiLabs CP210x drivers as well.

Everything worked great, the board was detected by Windows as "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM6)" in device manager and I was able to upload a sample sketch using the IDE example named "Button" that lights an LED when a button is pressed. I tested this on a breadboard and everything works.

The problem is that the Metro board was only recognized by Windows the first 2 or 3 times I connected it, now it does not show up at all. The board itself does still light up green when connected, and still runs the "Button" app, but I have no corresponding COM port to communicate with it. I have tried using different USB cables and tried connecting it to another PC downloading the same IDE and drivers but the board is not detected there either. I'm worried maybe the USB chip died or something along those lines. Please let me know what I can do to get this going again.

Thanks!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

It looks like you setup everything correctly.

If you press the reset button on the Metro Mini just before hitting the upload button from the Arduino-IDE does that resolve the issue?

If you are still having issues, please post a screenshot of the Arduino IDE's Tools --> Ports drop down menu to see which serial ports are selected and available.

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

I tried pressing reset just before hitting upload in the IDE but still no dice. I also noticed that I no longer hear the Windows "device connect" sound effect like when you connect any other USB device when plugging in the Metro. Its just not detected at all. When it was working before it would come up as COM6 in device manager and the IDE but now does not show at all in either. I have attached a screenshot of device manager and the IDE.
Thanks!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

Thank you for the screenshot. It does look like the Metro is not being detected.

A few more things to verify:

1) Does a double click of the metro mini RST button make the COM port appear in Device Manager / Arduino IDE?

2) Which version of Windows are you running?

3) Does rebooting or reinstall the CP2104 drivers make a difference?

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

Unfortunately no, double clicking the metro mini RST button does not make the COM port appear in device manager or Arduino IDE.
I am currently running Windows 10 Enterprise version 21H2 on my primary PC but I have also tried it on a laptop running Windows 10 Pro with the same results, mini not detected by Windows.
I have also tried rebooting and reinstalling the CP2104 drivers but this has not made any difference either on both computers.
I feel like this is a hardware issue with the Metro Mini board itself since I also have an old Arduino Pro Mini that comes up ok in Windows and the IDE so I dont think the issue is on the computer side.
Thanks!

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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

You are probably correct that this is a hardware issue or the board has entered an unusable state due to bootloader / user code.

Before we start the replacement process can you confirm that:

1) Nothing else is connected to the board aside from the USB data cable.

2) No soldering or other alteration of the board has been done.

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

I can confirm that nothing else is connected to the board other than the USB cable.

I did solder 2 rows of 14 header pins down each side of the board (the ones that it came with) as I mentioned previously in my initial post, but other than that no soldering or alterations have been made to the board.

Thanks!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

Alright, I'm sorry I did not ask for this initially. Can you post a photo of the soldering of the headers?

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »


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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

Thank you. The soldering looks good.

Please send a note to [email protected] requesting a replacement Metro Mini. Include this forum link and supply your invoice#.

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

ok will do, thanks for your help!

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

I received the replacement board and everything is working great, thanks again for all the help with that. I did have another question though if that's ok. I just saw a product in the new "#NewProducts 9/21/22" YouTube video, the Adafruit WCH CH9102F Friend - USB to Serial Converter.

Would it be possible to use one of these to communicate with my original Metro Mini where the USB quit working? Does this device effectively perform the same function? It would be great if I could still upload sketches to it that way since it does seem to still work ok otherwise. Would this give me an alternative way to connect the Metro Mini to USB and have it detected in the Arduino IDE?
Thanks!

https://youtu.be/drJ5OBFrLkQ?t=206
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5568

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

It could work. Having a direct serial connection to the metro mini using the USB to serial converter would be a work around if the problem was the boards serial converter or bootloader. We don’t know for sure what the failure was in this case so no guarantees.

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JD209
 
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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by JD209 »

I kinda want to try it, you know, for science! No worries if it doesn't work I could still use the Friend converter board for something else. How would the physical connection work as far as pin-out, I don't see any pins on the Metro Mini marked as TX or RX. I would assume something like the diagram here:
https://docs.arduino.cc/static/17a3b74e ... alLite.jpg

But how would you know which pins connect where on the Metro side? I've been searching around but havent been able to find an answer. I also have an FTDI to USB cable, would it be possible to connect to the Metro Mini that way?
Thanks for all your help!

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Re: Metro mini no longer detected via USB

Post by mikeysklar »

It sounds like what you might want to consider is a ISP programmer for the Metro mini since the bootloader is necessary and you are already sharing the built in UART pins with the USB controller.
There are two ways to program an AVR microcontroller. One is to reprogram the entire chip using an AVR programmer. The other is to use a bootloader that is pre-programmed onto the chip that allows the chip to re-program itself. An AVR programmer is more powerful: you can really mess with anything on the chip and the entire 32K of memory is available. Using the bootloader is safer: there's no way to mess with the fuse settings (which could brick the chip) but you only get 30K of memory since 2K is used by the bootloader. Not a big deal, but if you are working on a big project which requires tons of flash space, you may need it
https://learn.adafruit.com/ftdi-friend/ ... programmer

Pins D0 (TX) and D1(RX) are the UART pins on the Metro Mini

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-met ... rt-2722974

This guide is helpful for connecting up serial adapters to boards. It is the same six pin FTDI setup being used between the older and newer FTDI friend USB serial converter adapters.

https://learn.adafruit.com/ftdi-friend/ ... bootloader

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