Digispark Arduino programmer killing keyboard and mouse on Mac

[digistump]

@benjie -
This makes me wonder how many other MBP issues are due to the recessed ports - you might feel sheepish, but you probably saved me a ton of support time with others!

Glad it is more or less working for you - I\'d still think the freezing wouldn\'t occur on all ports, but I suppose I don\'t know the MBP circuitry well enough to say for certain.

Thanks for your contributions to micronucleus as well!

[Bluebie]

I\'ve also noticed the digispark usb plug isn\'t long enough for some of my usb ports. I think a future model would be improved by lengthening it about 3mm. I\'m using a little extension cable on mine. Thinking about getting a normally closed push button and putting that in the cable end so I can press a button to restart it too - could be nicer!

[benjie]

@Bluebie A USB extension cable with reset pushbutton is a really nice idea!

I just used a silver circuit pen to lengthen the USB data pin traces to match the power pin trace length, and let it dry overnight.  Now I can plug mine in directly to my mac.

[digistump]

I\'m checking with the factory whether it is too late to lengthen the plug for future runs.

The USB extension with button is a great idea, I\'m thinking a small board with a mini-usb (because I have tons of cables) and a push button and then a USB A to plug the digispark in, kind of a little development pod. If I make one I\'ll release the design and put it in the webstore when that launches.

[awalkerca]

I\'m also experiencing this issue on a 2009MBP running M.L. Without the IDE running (although I didn\'t check for any other tasks in the Activity Monitor) or the Digispark connected, I have noticed my keyboard and trackpad being delayed. Sometimes the keys and clicks will happen a second later, or sometimes not at all. I haven\'t measured the frequency, but it almost felt like there was a 2-3 second delay between things.

[digistump]

@awalkerca - is this after doing an upload? and if so was it a successful upload?

If you uploaded successfully and then closed the IDE and removed the Digispark then everything Digispark related should be done and closed, but can you check for micronucleus in activity monitor?

[awalkerca]

Sorry for not replying, I didn't see any notifications about a reply.

I cannot reproduce the problem anymore, thankfully. I was uploading the initial blink application and it was successful. I closed the IDE and unplugged the Arduino. I connected it to a battery source, then re-connected it to the computer. From this point, it was causing issues with the keyboard and mouse.


I'll check back in if I can find this problem again.


Sorry again for the delay!

[AugustoEst]

Had a similar problem as well    caps lock key keeps turning itself on and off from time to time, and my keyboard in general feels less responsive.

[digistump]

AugustoEst - these issues should only be occurring during an upload or when the computer is talking to the Digispark - not just because it is plugged in. Are you experiencing them other times as well?

[acadiel]

I'm having this issue as well... I have a shell script that is doing a weather write to the LCD:

[size=78%]function write[/size]
{
# write to Arduino - two phases
./send "$mydate"
./send "$myday"
sleep 5
./send "Temperature:"
./send "$temp"
sleep 5
./send "Conditions:"
./send "$weather"
sleep 5
./send "Humidity: ${humidity}%"
./send "Visib: ${visibility}mi"
sleep 5
./send "Wind:"
./send "$winddir - $windmph MPH"
sleep 5
./send "Wind chill:"
./send "$windchill"
}


It freezes the keyboard and the mouse every 5-10 seconds.  Now, I'm hooked up through a two port USB KVM, and what is interesting is that it's doing it on either host.  The Digispark is hooked up via USB hub to the Mac.  But, the PC on the other KVM is getting the delays too.  If I break the shell script, it stops the hangs.  Note, that this is on a Mac Mini (2010) running 10.8.3.  The PC on the other end of the KVM is running Win7, it's a Lenovo X220.