[FIXED!] Weird Serial/WiFi issues

[Kaeltis]

I'm having a weird issue with the serial port.

After uploading a sketch with serial output enabled, the serial monitor doesn't show anything at all,
I can only get it to work by deleting the DigiX COM port from the device manager, unplugging the DigiX and plugging it in again, but only until I upload a new sketch.

I'm using the DigiX Hardware files and DigiX Drivers on Windows 8.1 x64

Also, the WiFi module aswell only seems to work together with

Code: [Select]

//DigiX trick - since we are on serial over USB wait for character to be entered in serial terminal
while(!Serial.available()){
    Serial.println("Enter any key to begin");
    delay(1000);
  }
in setup() and this procedure. As soon as I remove the "DigiX trick", it doesn't  respond anymore (using the "ServerExample" or the arduino_to_thingspeak example) except for it's builtin webinterface.

[digistump]

The first issue I've seen too with Arduino IDE 1.5.5 in general (not DigiX specific) - and for that reason don't have a fix, it just went away the next day - do you see it with other boards in the same IDE if you have others?

For the DigiX try putting a delay say delay(1000); (or more) at the start where the Serial waiting was - the wifi module might not be starting fully before you try to talk to it.

[Kaeltis]

I added a delay of 5000ms to setup, now it works, thanks

I'll try an old Arduino Mega 2560 later and see how that behaves.

Edit: no serial issues with the Mega 2560, maybe it's caused by the whole flash erasing, writing and board reseting process the newer boards use.

[digistump]

Do you have a second machine you can test the serial thing on? I see no way it could be the device - but it'd be nice to confirm if it was the IDE/computer.

[Kaeltis]

Old MacBook Pro (late 2007) with OS X Mavericks - Serial working perfectly, can upload sketches and directly access the Serial Monitor to get the output.

Same PC as Windows 8.1 with Linux Mint 16 x64 - similar serial problems as on windows

Gonna try Win 7 x64 on a different Machine later
Edit: exactly the same serial problems there.

[digistump]

This is just strange - obviously not a hardware issue, serial works for me on many win8, win8.1, and win7 machines.... is there a common program on these machines that could be interfering? that's all I can think of...

[Kaeltis]

I have no clue, especially as there are similar problems in a clean linux environment. 
Are you using Beta 1.5.5 or 1.5.5-R2?

I'll do a clean windows install the next couple of days, maybe things behave different then.

Just to make sure, when installing the IDE, is this the correct order for a x64 system?

• Download and install/extract the Arduino beta IDE (1.5.5-R2)
• Install the drivers from the Arduino IDE "drivers" folder (dpinst-amd64.exe)
• Extract the DigiX hardware folder to "Documents\Arduino"
• Run the DigiX "Install Drivers - 64bit.bat" file
• Run the Arduino IDE, select COM Port and Board "Digistump DigiX (standard)", programmer is AVRISP mkII

One thing i noticed, when you go to "<arduino installation folder>\hardware\tools" and run "listComPorts.exe" the program shows all COM ports but then crashes with the following message:

(it shows the DigiX COM port for just a moment after i click the OK button)

Maybe its caused by the german language of my OS? Can anyone confirm that?

[gogol]

I can confirm, that it is running under german versions of

• Windows 7 Ultimate x64,
• Windows 7 Personal x64,
• Vista Business x64,
• Windows 7 Personal 32,
• Windows XP 32

It runs as well under several Ubuntus 32/64 10.04, 12.04, 13.10 and OpenSuse 13.1

[Kaeltis]

Do you get that error message when running listComPorts?

[gogol]

no, i receive a complete list without any error!

[Kaeltis]

So this might be the possible cause of the problem, can anyone tell me why this is happening?

[gogol]

https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/issues/1573

[Kaeltis]

Strange, so this should already be fixed? So why is it still broken? 

[gogol]

the MD5 sum of my listcomports.exe is:

5330b7080dde031656c83c3a8cdd93c7 listcomports.exe

if you have no windows version of md5sums, you can get it there:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290

[Kaeltis]

Thanks, have the same checksum here

also tried compiling the most recent version from git - same error
(https://github.com/todbot/usbSearch)