First problem with Flutter

[Flutterman]

Hi guys. New Flutter owner here.
I got my two Flutters today and started to test them. I am using Windows 7 32bit. Downloaded software and library, set the region code and plugged the first Flutter into the USB port. Windows installed some drivers and gave me a "Bossa Program Port" on COM9.
Then following the "Getting started" guide I erased the Flutter by holding down B1 and applying and removing USB power. Then I started the IDE, loaded the "Range Test" example, clicked on upload and ... "No device found on COM9". Closed down everything, unplugged Flutter, started over again - "No device found on COM9".
So I unpacked the second Flutter and without erasing or anything I just plugged it in and tried to upload - "No device found on COM9". Tried the other USB cable - "No device found on COM9".
The device manager shows COM9 and the cable is plugged directly into the notebook.

Any ideas what went wrong?

[smithdsl]

Hey Guys,

I got my flutter devices earlier this week. I'm having similar problems, but I'm kind of green when it comes to programming so pray for me. I have found if i do the "hard erase procedure" twice, i can then program the broad. I can't monitor the serial port and it does not appear in device manager and the IDE program crashes but the program on the broad works. I must redo the "hard erase procedure" and use a different USB port to get it to reappear. At this point I can reprogram the broad.

I have gotten the "RangeTest" and "Blink" examples to work, but have not tested others yet.

I tried to build the system on ubuntu but the the compiler does not work on i686 or something. I also saw the same problem with the com port (/dev/ttyACM0) in linux but the port number does not change as it does in Windows.

P.S. I'm running Windows 7 64bit, Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04.

Thanks

[Flutterman]

I already did the hard erase procedure several times but let's try it again. So at the seventh try I noticed that the LED on the underside of the board blinked once. So I fired up the IDE and uploaded the Range Test sketch. This time it looked a lot better:
Erase flash
Write 30684 bytes to flash

[ ] 0% (0/120 pages)
[== ] 8% (10/120 pages)
[===== ] 16% (20/120 pages)
[======= ] 25% (30/120 pages)
[========== ] 33% (40/120 pages)
[============ ] 41% (50/120 pages)
[=============== ] 50% (60/120 pages)
[================= ] 58% (70/120 pages)
[==================== ] 66% (80/120 pages)
[====================== ] 75% (90/120 pages)
[========================= ] 83% (100/120 pages)
[=========================== ] 91% (110/120 pages)
[==============================] 100% (120/120 pages)
Verify 30684 bytes of flash

[ ] 0% (0/120 pages)
[== ] 8% (10/120 pages)
[===== ] 16% (20/120 pages)
[======= ] 25% (30/120 pages)
[========== ] 33% (40/120 pages)
[============ ] 41% (50/120 pages)
[=============== ] 50% (60/120 pages)
[================= ] 58% (70/120 pages)
[==================== ] 66% (80/120 pages)
[====================== ] 75% (90/120 pages)
[========================= ] 83% (100/120 pages)
[=========================== ] 91% (110/120 pages)

And this is where it stopped... I presume this is the not-yet-functioning autoreset. So I unplugged the board and plugged it back again - and it works!
So the first problem seems to be solved...

[Flutterman]

Well it seems like the problem is not entirely solved after all.
No luck with the second Flutter. I keep doing the hard erase procedure for over 20 minutes now... The LED on the board blinks sometimes when I apply power and it blinks more often when I remove power. But still: "No device found on COM9"...

Can anybody please explain what the function of that LED is? I could not find anything yet.

[smithdsl]

Flutterman,

I dont think the verify feature is working yet. It never finishes and i have to restart IDE to program the second broad.

Try this if the "Bossa Program Port (COM#)" port shows up in "Computer Management". Right click on the COM port and click on "Properties". Next click on "Port Settings", Then "Advanced". At the bottom your can change the port number. Click "OK" on all the windows and restart the "IDE" You should see the new COM port number in IDE and program your broad.

Just found this to work on my Windows 8.1 system, have not tested windows 7 yet.

Oh yeah I think the LED on the back is for the on-broad battery charger, not sure why it blinks sometime when plugging in the USB port. Can you use the "Serial Monitor"?

Hope this helps.........

[Flutterman]

My Flutters obviously needed a good night sleep. This morning I started the PC, plugged the second Flutter in and uploaded the Range Test sketch.
And this is where the drama continues...
The serial monitor does not work (the IDE crashes) because - well, there is no COM port to connect to!
As soon as the sketch is running, the Flutter is no longer recognized as a COM device!
So in order to upload another sketch I have to do the hard reset procedure. When I plug in the Flutter it is recognized as a COM device, I can upload the sketch and then unplug and plug it in again. The sketch runs but there is no COM port!
Come on guys! Really? This is about the most basic functionality. At least for debugging.

[Reklaw]

I don't think the windows drivers are quite there yet...

In the meantime, if you have a USB to serial chip or another Arduino lying around then use that as your COM port, and plug Flutter pins D2 and D3 into the Tx and Rx pins respectively. It's a bit ugly (especially with unplugging to program flutter), but it lets you get up and running.

[torgny]

I'm using W7 and see the same problem with the com-port as described above. When can we expect an update? Can't do much without the com-port.

[taylor]

Hey folks!

There are at least two issues here:

One, we do not have USB working in user programs yet. I absolutely understand the value of this feature and the product sucks without it, but this is only temporary. There is a lot more we want to do with the software and this is one major feature we are working hard on, but we chose not to hold up hardware delivery on software issues. Anyway, the USB issue is in development. When we ported Arduino to Flutter pretty much everything from the Due carried over pretty easily... except the USB portion requires a full rewrite. Luckily we have some skilled community developers on the issue and I am in contact with another developer now who has been writing the USB code for this, so I will be testing that soon.

Two, thank you for the detailed bug report for windows. It sounds like there's at least one issue here, potentially two. We know that auto reset is not working and that is very frustrating I'm sure. I haven't looked at that in detail yet but it is high priority for me.

I'm glad programming seems to be working now for some of you.

So what is the current status for you all? Has anyone been unable to get it working? Is anyone still struggling to get the basic programming working? @Flutterman is it still inconsistent for you?

Thanks.

[Flutterman]

Hey Taylor,

I am not doing much with the Flutter at the moment. I decided to wait for an update and try it again.

[taylor]

Hello all!
We have fixed the windows programming issue. Please re-download the IDE.
http://flutterwireless.com/files/FlutterWindows.zip

Let me know if you have continued trouble. I've noticed some USB hubs have issues with Flutter, so if you're using a hub try going direct.

Now that the windows issue is fixed, time to tackle the USB Serial issue!

[Flutterman]

Yep. Automatic reset after upload works!

[pittsville]

Does someone have an idea why the blink sketch might not work? Is there a blink sketch written especially for Flutter or is the regular blink program supposed to work? I can get my boards to do the range test but not the blink sketch?

[pittsville]

My boards are working now.

I don't know what I did to make them work this time, but they do work, except for "Blink".

[ILoveVashon]

I am not getting any activity on my boards. I have tried two so far.

It should be added to the getting started section that under TOOLS, BOARD, select Arbuino Due. No sure which due since neither one will upload.

I am new to Arduino so maybe someone would like to do a tutorial that newbies can follow.

[taylor]

Arduino Due will not work. You need the Flutter-specific IDE which is available here:

Getting Started with the Flutter Basic and Flutter Pro

Flutter Getting Started 1) Install Flutter Editor To get started, download the Flutter editor software for your operating system. This is a custom modified version of the Arduino IDE, and is required to program Flutter. In time, we will port our changes back to the main tree so that this step can be eliminated. Linux Mac Windows a) Download and unzip the files, place the folder wherever you would like on your system, and run the "Arduino" executable inside the folder. Note: The IDE may t…

We hope to integrate with the official IDE soon so you do not need to use a separate one.

@pittsville
Blink sketch is actually broken. I have removed it from our official repo until I can fix it.

[pittsville]

OK. Thank you.

I'm really happy with these flutters and am looking forward to learning to use them.

I like the "Early Backer Special Edition" that is printed on them too.

[LawrieMc]

I might be having a similar problem : I don't seem to be about to communicate with the flutter board to send sketches etc.

In the board menu I selected "Flutter basic".
In the port menu there is no flutter listed as any of the port options.
Perhaps unsurprisingly I get an error:
"Board at /dev/tty.usbmodemfa131 is not available"

On verifying the sketch though I get another error which I've not seen before when working with normal arduino's

Arduino: 0155 (Mac OS X), Board: "Flutter Basic"
core.a(main.cpp.o): In function `sysTickHook()':
/Applications/Arduino Flutter.app/Contents/Resources/Java/hardware/arduino/sam/cores/arduino/main.cpp:64: warning: undefined reference to `tickInterrupt()'

I'm using Mac OSX 10.10.5 and the arduino installation for mac from http://flutterwireless.com/files/

One thing I did notice was that maybe I need to do a "diff" on the arduino package as per the instructions on github? https://github.com/flutterwireless/ArduinoCodebase

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[LawrieMc]

Taylor... Anyone....