2013 Macbook Air can't upload to original Digispark

[buffington]

I've had plenty of success with the original Kickstarter Digisparks on a Macbook Pro (Retina even), but on a new 11" Macbook Air I can't get a single one of my 10 Digisparks to upload.


I've tried powered USB 2.0 hubs, unpowered USB 2.0 hubs, a powered USB 3.0 hub, simple extensions. The only thing I haven't tried is hooking up to a Thunderbolt display and using its USB ports.


Of note, the latest Macbook Air has two USB ports, both of them are USB 3.0.


Also, using a bright light and a loupe, I can see that the Digispark is making full contact on all 4 pads. On "fresh" Digisparks the blink example runs just fine. Otherwise, the Digispark is invisible to the computer. No error messages in console, no devices listed in System Information.


I've run out of ideas.

[buffington]

SOLVED. Sort of.

I can get all but 1 of my 10 Digisparks to work now through a non-Thunderbolt Cinema Display's USB ports.


The one that won't work, well, there's a good reason. See the following pic:


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/100876/Screenshots/20130823095725.png


Seems like there was a little goof up with R3 and R1, and maybe even some soldering issues near R5?

[digistump]

There is still a mystery issue with some USB 3.0 controllers - if anyone else sees this and has the new macbook air please chime in as to whether it works for you.


@buffington - send us an email with your address to support@digistump.com and we'll send you a replacement for that bad one - looks like it should have been binned at the factory and wasn't.

[dougal]

In the meantime, if anyone with a new MBP Retina which wouldn't talk to Digisparks has found a particular cheap USB hub which seems to make it work, let us know what brand/model?

[dougal]

Son of a gun....


After researching the MBP Retina USB3 issue, going down a few rabbit holes, and almost buying a used USB 1.1 hub that claimed to do data buffering, I ran across a few comments that suggested to just power down the laptop, power up, and try again.



And whadaya know -- it worked.


I tend not to shut my computer down on a regular basis. I just put it to sleep and then resume from where I left off at a later time. But after doing a full shutdown, then booting up, I plugged my Digispark into my USB 2 hub, and I was able to upload a new sketch to it. Huzzah!


I haven't done any thorough testing yet, but for completeness sake, I booted up with my USB 2.0 hub already plugged in. I don't know if that had any bearing or not. I am currently theorizing that this might have forced the port into USB 2.0 compat mode? Don't really know. But I wanted to mention it in case others with this problem want to give it a go.

[digistump]

Wonderful! And thanks for sharing the solution!