Plum Geek Forum

I've installed the drivers and everything in the first steps, but my computer doesn't seem to be recognizing the connector and the Tools Port menu in the Arduino IDE is still grayed out. Being completely new to this sort of thing, I don't know where to begin troubleshooting. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

What kind of computer do you have? PC, Mac, Linux? What is the operating system? Window 7, 10? Mac OS X 10.10.4?

Tom

I am having the exact same problem. I tried this on two different PCs, both running Windows 7, and neither recognized the Ringo when it is plugged in through the programming board. If I plug it in directly via USB the charge light does come on, but not when it is connected through the programming board, with Ringo on or off.

I am running PC Windows 8.1. And have also noticed that the charge light comes on with the direct USB connection, but not through the programming board.

I'm using a Mac, so I can't comment on the PC. However, I tried two cables which power phone-devices, but failed to give the port name. The cable that worked was specifically designed to work with devices connected to the Arduino.

Try radio shack (if it still exists) or best buy, but verify that it works with Arduino!

Two companies that specialize in small electronics supplies are http://www.adafruit.com and http://www.sparkfun.com. Their cable should work.

I am running parallels, a windows emulator, on my Mac which lets me run Windows 7. I set up driver and Arduino 1.6.5. With my "good' cable com 5 showed up and I could load with no problem. Alas, with the "bad" cable the port entry was grayed out.

Tom

Do you have any idea what the difference is between the 'good' cable and the 'bad' cable? USB 1.0 vs 2.0 standard? AWG rating? Ferrite core? I will hunt around for some different A to Mini-B cables to try before buying another, but if none work I want to make sure I am buying the right thing.

I suspect that there are 5 pins on the USB mini, but only 4 are needed for power, but I'm no expert.

From http://www.sparkfun.com, I use the SparkFun Cerberus USB Cable - 6ft product which is 3 common USB cables in one. In the description of this, you will find a link to USB Buying Guide which discussed the differences in cables.


Take a look at http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=129390.0 Below are two interesting quotes:

"Did you cut two standard A to micro B cables in half and connect the micro B halves to each other? Then you have a B to B cable which does not work. You need a micro A to Micro B cable. The difference is that in the micro A end a fifth "ID" pin is connected to ground so that an otg capable device (here the due) can sense that it should start acting as a host. If it saw the B end of the cable with ID pin unconnected it would start acting as a device.

There are tutorials around there showing how you can open the plasic plug and connect the the ID pin to the adjacent GND pin, but that is a kludge. Best is to find a suitable cable."



"Manufacturer Name Android State
HTC Desire S 2.3.7, CyanogenMod 7.1 Works
Asus Transformer Prime TF201 4.1.1 Works
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" 4.1.1, CyanogenMod nightly Only charging
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1" 4.0.4 Works
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 4.1.1 Only charging
Google/Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.? Only charging
"

Tom

The important question is that will the cable handle data transfer in addition to providing power. This may be equivalent to saying it is a 5 pin cable. See, for example, this Amazon ad


http://www.amazon.com/6ft-Type-Male-Min ... mini+usb+b

An here is more about what's going on

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/qu ... only-has-4


Tom

Can anybody confirm that it IS the cable that is the problem? Anybody else with a Mac figured out how to get the serial port to show up? I can confirm that the .kext files are installed. I cannot see the device file in the /dev/ directory. I have tried a couple of different cables, the last one being a MiniB cable that transfers data from a DVD writer. Seems to me that one should work fine. No luck. Also tried to get a port via Windows 7 under parallels and still no luck. Doesn't even register the USB device. Maybe it is the cable. Ringo will remain quiet until this one gets figured out.

I am on Retina MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.5.

Brian

I tried a couple other cables I could find, but no success. I have ordered a new one that is explicitly 5-pin and will try it when it arrives, hopefully tomorrow. If that doesn't work, then I am at a loss. I wish that Ringo came with a USB cable that was known to work.