Author Topic: Retina MBP Issues (Read 49316 times)

digistump · « **on:** December 30, 2012, 07:20:56 pm »

There seem to be some issues with Retina Mac Book Pros - either not seeing the Digispark at all, or it causing the system to hang. I am pretty certain these are related to the USB 3.0 ports used entirely on the Retina MBP - these are suppose to be backward compatible but other device makers have started to have issues as well, some issues are caused by drivers, some firmware, and some because of the plug design or other electrical issues.

The best solution at this point is to plug your Digispark into a USB hub - USB 2.0 or lower - which seems to solve the issues.

I do not have a Retina Mac Book Pro at this point, but I do have a computer with several USB 3.0 ports on it and I'll be doing some testing soon to see if I can isolate the cause and any possible solutions.

In the meantime please post anything related to Retina MBP compatibility here.

Thanks,
Erik

digistump · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2012, 08:29:16 pm »

If anyone with a Retina MBP is reading this can you please try the following:

Plug a Digispark into the Retina MBP USB port using a USB extension cable - does that work any better? (This would mean it is related to the plug)

buffington · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2012, 08:56:43 pm »

I\'ve seen issues when using an extension cable. I can test some of the various cables/hubs I have to see if there\'s some sort of pattern.

digistump · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2012, 09:04:32 pm »

@buffington - it seemed other Retina MBP users couldn\'t get it to work at all, I think a good extension could help that as it might be the plug of the Digispark contacting the USB 3.0 pins - but with yours working I\'d think that an extension would cause more issues, as generally we recommend not to use one since most are cheap and cause too much of a voltage drop.

I just tested on a PC with USB 3.0 ports and it worked, but it is a tower computer so you can\'t push it in as far as with a laptop, which would prevent contact with the USB 3.0 specific pins.

We also could be dealing with a driver issue with the USB 3.0 controller - which might be more related to your issues, the hub would fix it because the hub is then the controller. I only think that is a possibility because I\'ve seen that some people have issues with USB 2.0 sound devices on Retina MBP because of the controller that is used.

Let us know if you find a pattern that works! - Thanks for experimenting with it!

buffington · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2012, 09:05:08 pm »

Here\'s something that consistently happens when connected directly or with an extension (but not with a hub):

1. With the Digispark unplugged, upload a program.
2. When prompted, plug the Digispark in.
3. The MBP\'s trackpad will become unresponsive while the program is uploaded to the Digispark and remain unresponsive for as long as a minute.

Looking at Console.app, I see a handful of these messages that correspond with the period of inactivity:

12/30/12 9:08:08.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::_deviceGetReport - DeviceRequest for reportID 0x0 returned with result 0xe000404f - retrying

digistump · « **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2012, 09:06:18 pm »

Is this true on all USB ports? Very strange...

buffington · « **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2012, 09:16:09 pm »

Using the 27\" Cinema Display\'s hub, I see no issues of inactivity. Nor do I see any issues with any other hubs (a cheap, USB 2.0 no name 4 port powered hub, and the built in ports on a 24\" Dell LCD monitor).

One thing I just noticed was that I only see the unresponsive track pad when uploading a program that\'s different than that of the one already on the Digispark.

I tested this by adjusting a single delay value within the DigisparkRGB example. Uploaded it once, saw the delay (since it was replacing a different program), then tried to get the delay 10 more times by uploading again. No trackpad problems.

Then I changed the delay (which in itself I doubt is relevant, but it\'s a hard coded value). After uploading, I saw the trackpad problem. I left it the same and uploaded again. No problem. Changed it to a new value - saw the trackpad problem.

Of the 10 times I changed values, I saw trackpad problems each time.

buffington · « **Reply #7 on:** December 30, 2012, 09:18:15 pm »

After a few tries here I\'ve not seen any issues with the trackpad when using any other port aside from one of the two on the machine.

digistump · « **Reply #8 on:** December 30, 2012, 10:15:04 pm »

Thanks for the analysis!

Something with the Digispark upload is obviously clashing with the trackpad communication when they are on the same controller.

saperlot · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2013, 05:53:01 am »

Hello,
It\'s not related to just retina MBP\'s. I have the latest 13\' MBP and here it\'s the same issue. i think all USB devices freezes each minute until a restart after i try to upload with the direct usb connection. But it also worked well with a USB Hub.

Bluebie · « **Reply #10 on:** January 05, 2013, 04:37:03 pm »

@saperlot for the freezing try just quitting the digispark arduino program. If that doesn't work try opening a terminal, type "sudo killall -9 micronucleus". Does this fix it? Arduino software seems to leave a zombie micronucleus program running which can be a little mean to the USB interface, especially if several copies end up running - maybe it should time out after five seconds or so.

digistump · « **Reply #11 on:** January 05, 2013, 04:40:44 pm »

@Bluebie - I think a 10-20 second time out would be a great feature for the uploader, I had hacked it in to the ruby version but haven\'t had a chance to add it to the C++ one yet

tiegz · « **Reply #12 on:** January 12, 2013, 04:47:16 pm »

I opened my digispark for the 1st time tonight on a retina MBP, and ran into the same issue. Used a USB cable and then started working.

One catch is that I have to unplug the digispark everytime I want to upload. I noticed the trackpad issue once (altho my Magic Trackpad via BT seemed to work), but I can\'t reproduce anymore.

Anyway, really cool to have arduino on such a small USB chip! *stoked*

bobchadwick · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2013, 07:49:06 pm »

My digispark isn\'t detected on my 2009 13\" MBP. I don\'t have a USB cable around to see if that works.

digistump · « **Reply #14 on:** January 17, 2013, 10:06:11 pm »

@bobchadwick - this is likely due to the USB ports being recessed a bit more than on most machines, unfortunately the only good solution for that is to use a hub or cable.

Something like this is nice and portable - http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Male-to-USB-Female-M-F-Adaptor-Converter-/180544622456?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a094c4f78

But any half decent usb extension cable or hub will likely work.