Reading the forum, i see I am not the only one to have problems with the serial port.
Using w7, all went well, serial port was 'COM8', did load my sketch, connect to breadboard, worked well. On reconnecting next day, Serial port is 'grey'. Did everything I could, following all reccomendations and advices, to no effect. On 'Device Manager', Uno is there with COM8, but on IDE, Serial Port still 'grey'.
How come so many users have the same problem?
Is there a solution, or is the sytem so badly designed that there is no much hope...
Any idea would be welcome. Thank you.
com64
I disagree "many people" have the "problem". (whatever the problem is)
What's the last sketch you loaded?
Thank you for your reply.
I don’t think the problem comes from the last sketch. It came first after using the “blink” sketch from the examples, then, another day after using the “tilt sketch” page 183 from the book “Arduino Cookbook” by Michaels Margolis (alternating 2 Leds by closing a switch on a breadboard). Sometimes, the “Tools ?Serial port shows “COM8” and things work normally, sometimes, doing the same procedure, the “Tools->Serial Port” is grey and nothing work. In that case I have the message: “Serial Port ‘COM8’ not found. Did you select the right one…etc.”
Before writing this, I just tried one last time, without any ‘last sketch’ and without any breadboard connected and I still have the ‘Serial Post’ grey on the menu. Looking at the ’Device Manager’ on the Control Panel, I have ‘Arduino UNO R3 (LPT3)’ .
Very confusing. Thank you for your help.
com64
com64:
Looking at the ’Device Manager’ on the Control Panel, I have ‘Arduino UNO R3 (LPT3)’ .
Really? LPT3?
Yes (LPT3) strange as it is. Could not reproduce it as I have no connection now. I also did un-install and re-install the driver as suggested in another post but to no avail.
Coding Badly,
What "Com port" does your Uno R3 come up on? My Uno comes up Com8 and I never have an issue (WinXP). Com3 seems to be common thread.
spcomputing:
What "Com port" does your Uno R3 come up on? My Uno comes up Com8 and I never have an issue (WinXP). Com3 seems to be common thread.
LPT is used for old Centronics printer ports. An Uno should never be assigned a DOS name that starts with "LPT".
com64:
Could not reproduce it as I have no connection now.
Does the computer make the "device insertion" sound when you connect the board?
Yes, I understand that (actually a DB25 LPT port can be a communications port for not just printers, transfered a few 200MB+ HD back in the day). I am only interested in the common thread of Com3. Can we narrow down problems when the Uno is assigned Com3 (throw out the LPT3 for now, until it resurfaces)? Can we put a poll on this forum to get a distribution of assigned Uno communication ports and problems?
In the computer system of yester-dacade, com 1 and com 3 were tied. If the driver behaves similar to that old driver, mouse/touchpad operation (com 1) could affect an Uno that ties on with com 3. It all depends on a microsoft driver, and I have lost my confidence in MS a long time ago.
spcomputing:
Can we narrow down problems when the Uno is assigned Com3 (throw out the LPT3 for now, until it resurfaces)? Can we put a poll on this forum to get a distribution of assigned Uno communication ports and problems?
That is not an appropriate question for this topic. You are certainly welcome to start a new topic to discuss the matter.
Did uninstall and restart from fresh twice. When connecting the USB cable, the computer gives the ‘normal’ sound but nothing now appears now on the Device Manager. The very short time it did work, it was COM8 and then that unreal “LPT3” (which does not makes sense on W7) and now nothing, just the connecting and disconnecting sounds.
Giving up now until I find a ‘proper’ USB interface that works. Life is too short to waste time with devices that are not properly designed and don’t work
com64
Sorry this is being such a problem for you. I do believe that it is a Windows issue and I might have a solution to start with.
Go to your device manager.
Find "Ports" and expand if needed.
Right Click on the Communications Port (Or LPT) that is most likely your Arduino.
Click the Port Settings Tab and the top and click the "Advanced..." button.
In this Advanced Settings menu, there should be a "Com Port Number:" with the default.
Click the default Com# and note the Com Ports that are not in use and select one (Com15 should be out of the pack) of the 256 available.
*** Note, if the LPT Virtual Port is still there, you will have to uninstall the driver and possible reconnect the Arduino to initiate the driver install routine, then get back into the Port Settings window. My only LPT port is a real Parallel Port, so I can not test this.
You also have some Timeout Settings and Receive and Transmit bytes that can be dialed back to get that Arduino online. I suspect your PC might be not be patient enough for a response from the Arduino. The Vista and W7 (compared to XP) have a wide selection of "knobs" for serial tuning, so I suspect Microsoft is aware of this.
Dear spcomputing,
Thank you for your help. Following your instructions,I finally managed to get a port working (COM8). Also if the break in communication happens again (I am sure it will!), I know where to look. The problem very likely comes from my computer (W7) as when the connection is established, the Uno works well. I could also change the port at will, using one of the free ports not in use.
The whole thing has been a bit nightmarish, wasting a lot of time and sanity.
Once again many thanks. Cheers,
com64
Good to hear. Once you have gotten your Arduino out of the mess of COM1-4, Windows should reserve it for quite a while (Updates appear to screw with it).
Have fun!
Dear spcomputing,
Thank you. All problems are not totally resolved but I can use the Board. The whole system is very capricious. Sometimes I have an instant communication through COM8, sometimes I have to reboot the computer. Sometimes I lose the connection when uploading a new sketch. Also when uploading a new or a modified sketch, I sometimes have the message saying: “COM 8 busy with another program. Try to uninstall the other program”. Most of the times, holding the reset button while clicking on the ‘Upload’ icon and only then, releasing the reset button helps…but not every times.
Despite those minor nuisances, I like the board and can see its enormous potential for future uses when I shall finally correct those problems.
Next step is to build a Real Time Clock and use the ‘time’ functions.
Regards
c64
com64:
Dear spcomputing,Thank you. All problems are not totally resolved but I can use the Board. The whole system is very capricious. Sometimes I have an instant communication through COM8, sometimes I have to reboot the computer. Sometimes I lose the connection when uploading a new sketch. Also when uploading a new or a modified sketch, I sometimes have the message saying: “COM 8 busy with another program. Try to uninstall the other program”. Most of the times, holding the reset button while clicking on the ‘Upload’ icon and only then, releasing the reset button helps…but not every times.
Despite those minor nuisances, I like the board and can see its enormous potential for future uses when I shall finally correct those problems.
Next step is to build a Real Time Clock and use the ‘time’ functions.Regards
c64
Are you using 1.0.1 right?
I am experiencing troubles with the serial port also, never had issues with 0023 (besides some delays with bt devices) but now the menu is constantly grayed out... I tried updating the 8u2 to the rev0003, but after some uploads I got the same issue. Very annoying, the only workaround I found is to change the com port number every time this happens.
Another silly idea is to put a 2.0 USB Hub. Someone else had the same issue and moved from the front PC USB access ports to the back and fixed it. Something is fighting in the MS USB Driver based on the motherboard hardware. I had a machine that was fighting with the mouse on an old notebook and blam, all fighting gone.
I am having a similar problem with the serial port on my Arduino Uno, Rev 3, that is being discussed in this thread. When I try to run a program on the Arduino, I get the error the error message: "Serial port "COM3' not found. Did you select the right one from the Tools > Serial Port menu?"
When I go to the Tools > Serial port menu, it is greyed out. In reading the other posts to this thread, I noticed that, at one point, someone asked another member: "Do you hear the beep sound when you plug in the Uno to the computer?" My answer to that is: No, I do not get this sound. When I look at the device manager, it shows the Uno as being an "unknown device." Does this mean I should download the proper driver for the Uno? Will this solve the problem?
Did you try eried's modded IDE?
https://github.com/downloads/eried/Arduino/setup_Arduino_ERW_1.0.1i_20121020.exe