New User help, first code load fails

[cbell]

Hello, I just received my shipment (YAY!!!) but can not get the IDE to work. I followed the getting started post here, installed the arduino IDE (1.8.5) both Linux/ubuntu and MacOS. I added the Board manager URL (and now the Flutter Basic does show up in the Board menu) and added the US zip file to the library manager. I grab the RangeTest example, and as a sanity check, it does compile under the verify button.
Now I plug in the Flutter USB cable, and nothing. So, do the reset procedure: hold button 1 while power on, the light is off. Now when I plug it in, the USB port shows up, and I can compile/load/verify the code, the Flutter light comes on bright white. At this point the USB device vanishes, and I can no longer see it, even after unpug/replug. The only thing I can do is do the reset procedure again, which turns the light off and allows the USB device to show up again.

So... what am I missing?

Thanks,
Chris.

[cbell]

Just an update, the messages from the unix load:

Sketch uses 35524 bytes (27%) of program storage space. Maximum is 131072 bytes.
Erase flash
Write 37724 bytes to flash
[==============================] 100% (148/148 pages)
Verify 37724 bytes of flash
[==============================] 100% (148/148 pages)
Verify successful
Set boot flash true
CPU reset.

So it seems it can write, but after the reset the Flutter board just sits there with a white light. A hard reset/erase allows me to write again, but with the same result.
I did follow the other thread here to add support to boards.txt for the two variants, so I can see Basic and Pro now.
I would like to contribute back some example sketches to go with all the cool sensors included in the kit, but if I can't make the simple RangeTest example #1 work...
Thanks for any help...
Chris.

[colt4547]

Well said. Nearly exact response for myself. I've got maybe 3-4 hours playtime but I can't much more response than that. I did get a simple i/o program to work but acted strangely. I think i read an old post about needing to init the wireless libs to make things really operate. Anyone else in a recent batch release having similar trouble?

[mjs513]

Two things. The first is that if you want to print to the USB port change all the Serial.print commands to SerialUSB.print. If you print to Serial you are printing to the second Serial port (the one marked on the pins. The second would be to make sure you set one up as a transmitter and the comment out the define transmitter line in the sketch to set up the second flutter as the receiver.

Mike

[cbell]

I am using the RangeTest example code.
Playing around some more, I think the binary is being built wrong, so it does not actually run.
I probed around with an oscilloscope, and no (external) pins have any transitions, including all the Sx pins. So my guess is that the code is built, flashed into the Flutter, but then immediately crashes. Power cycle does not help.

The other clue to my guess is that whenever I change something (like board type, or the boards.txt file in the library) I get the following error in the IDE:

Build options changed, rebuilding all
arm-none-eabi-g++: error: core/syscalls_sam3.c.o: No such file or directory
exit status 1
Error compiling for board Flutter Basic.

retrying several times clears the error, and has a "successful" build, that can be flashed, but I wonder if it is actually working (or complete?) code.

googling that error has several suggestions of renaming options (related to other board types), none of which help.

I get this error both on Mac and Linux versions, so I suspect it has to do with the flutter library downloaded as part of the install process, probably due to different versions since it was built?
(I am using the current 1.8.5 IDE from www.arduino.cc)

According to another post here, the SerialUSB.print is no longer needed, but I don't know if that code was ever released?

In my case, the flutter is completely dead on reboot, so there is no serial activity, and the USB driver is not running, so the host laptop does not see any device at all.

Thanks for any help...
Chris.

[chris-teague]

Hi @cbell,

I ran into the same problem. I found that dropping down the extEEPROM version to 3.3.5 fixed things for me.

Just for clarity for others hitting this issue:

From the menu go to Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries...
Filter for exteeprom
Select version: 3.3.5, as opposed to 3.4.0

I restarted the Arduino app (not sure if that was necessary) & after that I was able to successfully upload to my flutter boards.

[chris-teague]

@cbell I found I still needed to change Serial over to SerialUSB in order to receive communications from the board in the Serial Monitor. Also, I had to make sure the Serial Monitor was closed when flashing the board, or I'd get an error.

[cbell]

Wow! that worked! It fixed the syscalls_sam3 error on both the Mac and Linux versions.
(Now I am getting the popup to install the DUE library... no biggie to ignore.)

The Mac is still not generating the right code (dead flutter), but the Linux side WORKS!

Blinking Lights! Wireless synced Blinking lights! WooHoo!!!

The Serial stuff will be next, I had to order a few new FTDI serial ports, so will take a few more days to test.
Plus now it is time to solder up the Pros.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!
Chris.

[taylor]

Hi Chris & Chris,

I'm sorry for the troubles you've had. Thanks for the note on the extEEPROM! I will have to look in to that.

@cbell - Have you tried it with the Serial lines commented out? The Serial spitting out the hardware serial pins was I suppose meant as a debug option, though I can understand why it is confusing people. However if you switch everything to USB, the code will crash as it will try to write to the USB port before it is open. I regret that I have not previously documented this behavior.

I've added a few new examples to the Flutter Github page. Please let me know if this works!

flutterwireless/FlutterExamples/blob/master/SerialUSBTest/SerialUSBTest.ino

Thanks.
Taylor