1- Turn on verbose upload in the Arduino IDE preferences
2- Plug in the TTN node, if it won’t show up as a COM/serial port that’s ok
3- Open up the Blink example (Examples->Basics->Blink)
4- Select the correct board in the Tools menu, e.g. sparkfun pro micro
5- Compile it (make sure that works)
6- Click Upload to attempt to upload the code
7- The IDE will print out a bunch of COM Ports as it tries to upload. During this time, double-click the reset button
8- The node will show up as the Bootloader COM/Serial port
9- The IDE should see the bootloader COM/Serial port and upload properly
@BoRRoZ sorry for the delayed reply. Caught up with travel and other works. Yes, I am able to upload sketch now but I can’t still get OTAA work. I am still on travel. I will get back to work in Dec 1st week and update again. Thank you for your support.
I have a similar problem. I cannot update the basic sketch I initially was able to load into the ttn node.Now I wanted to change the 1 minute interval to a 1 hour interval, but now with the basic sketch loaded into the ttn node, its usb connection is no longer recognized by win 10 which reacts with an error message when plugged in. The error is: USB device not recognized by windows. It therefore does not show up as a port in the arduino ide hence the sketch cannot be loaded. If I unplug the ttn node and instead plugin the ttn uno with same cable, everything works fine and the device is recognized. Sometime it also reported something like: The device is not sending correct device information. It has sent device info originally when it was empty but not now, after having loaded the basic sketch as instructed by the quickstart quide of the node. I am stuck with the dead node now…
Its easy to brick the node without realising it. It happens when you forget to use the correct board in the Arduino IDE and upload a sketch (Yes blush i’ve done it ).
Thankfully it is easy enough to get it working again
OK, so you’ve installed the board and it is now available in your IDE; you select it - but the Arduino IDE still doesn’t “see” the USB connection to your node - it is effectively “bricked”.
N.B. Make sure you select the 3.3V board via Tools->Processor->ATMega 32U4 (3.3v, 8 Mhz)
Unscrew the batteries using a 10 mm Torc screwdriver (you might get away with using a small screwdriver, but this is unlikely. Best to nip down to a suitable hardware store now - before it closes!)
create new “empty” sketch and press “Compile and Upload”, when it gets to the upload part, press one of the buttons on the node board to get the LED to pulse (it is on the backside of the board - that is why you have to remove the torx screws to get access to the reverse of the board). N.B. The pulsing only lasts for a short time, this is why you only press the button when the IDE says “uploading”
After the above has been done, the board will be “seen” again. Its all OK now - You will be able to put the screws back and load your node sketch!
@arjanvanb
Yes - good call , I forgot it is there. I remember I spent a bit of time on that page wondering why I couldn’t select the correct “sparkfun” board - the page doesn’t restate that you MUST install the sparkfun board first in the IDE.
Also, it isn’t made clear that you have to press the button AFTER the IDE said “Uploading” (it timed out for me)
Can you get it updated - then it becomes more useful?
Wow. Thanks for the quick help. I followed the unbricking instructions and the ttn node is back working ok.
Thanks @CurlyWurly@arjanvanb
btw. the reason I broke it was having left leonardo selected from my ttn uno activation activities.
So I bricked my thingsnode today. It does not show as a device anymore.
The board was set ok. It happened during a normal flash in Arduino for mac but I do not remember the messages.
What I tried:
Follow the unbrick instructions in both this site and the Sparkfun site.
Tried all above suggestions in this thread
All kinds of single click and double clicks to get into bootloader
Swapped cables
Reinstalled drivers on Mac
Installed latest High Sierra update
Moved to a windows laptop where it does not show up as a com port whatever I do
Compared to other node to check if any connectivity possible (yes)
? Now what ?
This all I get: https://youtu.be/N6NBmJsDu9Q
you did everything I could think of … maybe push harder and keep the reset button in, until you see the ide searching for a com port when uploading the sketch … then let it go, that’s the only thing that helped me a while back.
Hi there,
I’m an absolute LoRa beginner, I want to try it out. I successfully set up the TTN gateway. The TTN node does send messages, because I can see the message count on the gateway go up every time I press the button. But - I can’t upload anything on the node because the USB port is not showing in the Arduino IDE. I’ve tried the unbricking thing, but nothing ever happened with the port. I tried at least 20 or 30 times to make sure I get the timing right, but no success. Help please? Any ideas? I’m working on a Mac. USB port is working fine with other Arduino board. Please assume I’m no expert and I probably make some beginners mistakes. Thanks!
Hi Borroz, thanks, I did that, and I tried absolutely everything there. Nothing worked. Then I read on TTN that I basically stand no chance with a new Mac, and that’s all I’ve got here, reasonably new Macs. So now I’m trying with Marvin, Marvin is doing fine, transmitting data as it should, and I’m trying to figure out how to get the payload to show up properly in a database - next challenge. I’ll get there.
I have been trying to upload sketches to my Things Node on a Windows 10 laptop with Arduino 1.8.5. After 25-50 tries using the double reset method above, I was finally able to upload the Examples/TheThingsNode/Basic Sketch and see data on the Things Network Console, so I know it all works. I have since been trying to upload the Examples/TheThingsNode/CayenneLLP sketch with no luck. I now have trouble even loading the Basic or Blink Sketch, although occaisionally have success, so I don’t think node is bricked.
After programming Arduino for many years, trying to use a board with the 32U4 is the most frustrating experience. The ThingsUno was not much better.
Is there any wisdom out there to make the process of uploading sketches easier and more reliable?
Sorry for the rambling, but I hope this will help someone else and maybe someone smarter than me can explain why this is so hard.
20 more tries, swapping COM ports, opening and closing the Arduino app, etc, and I was able to upload. The big difference between the attempts is that the successful attempt has the “Forcing reset using 1200bps open/close on port COM13” line just before the series of “PORTS” lines and I didn’t need to push the Node reset button. If I could figure out how to force the reset, I would be all set.
Also, this only works when the regular (not bootloader) COM port is available in Device Manager before starting the upload AND the Arduino COM port tis set to the same. In this case, COM13 is the regular Serial COM port and COM18 is the bootloader COM port.
.......
Global variables use 1605 bytes (62%) of dynamic memory, leaving 955 bytes for local variables. Maximum
is 2560 bytes.
**Forcing reset using 1200bps open/close on port COM13**
PORTS {COM13, COM25, } / {COM25, } => {}
PORTS {COM25, } / {COM18, COM25, } => {COM18, }
Found upload port: COM18
C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/bin/avrdude -CC:\Program Files
(x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega32u4 -cavr109 -PCOM18 -b57600 -D -
Uflash:w:C:\Users\Tony\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_304444/CayenneLPP-ThingsNode1.ino.hex:i
......
i have the same problem with my mac. It seems that the hardest thing to get startet with the TTN is that you can upload a sketch to the things node. i tried it with my mac mini and with my macbook pro but i didnt succeed and i am really frustrated about that behavior…
When i open “About this mac” --> “System Report” i see a “SparkFun Pro Micro” listed under my USB 3.0 Bus. I also tried different cables