Problem with MKRFOX1200: USB stopped working as COM port

Hello,
I got a new MKRFOX1200 today.
After doing the first steps, programming some examples, it worked fine.
But suddenly the device is not recognized any more as USB COM port.
Win10 reports: Unknown device Id.

Can someone give me a hint ?

Martin

I just had the unkown device problem with a chinese atmega 2560. I had to install a new driver for the serial chip, but it only worked with the third cable.

So perhabs switch the cable or the USB port on the computer.
But probably you already did this.

Have you installed the boards.

Disconnect the MKRFOX.
Open IDE.
Select TOOLS.
Select BOARD and then BOARD MANAGER.
In the FILTER box type "mkr" It should list "Arduino SAMD Boards (32-bits ARM Cortex etc..."
Ensure it is installed and if not INSTALL it.

You may be presented with an install driver option to which you must say yes.
If you are on windows 9 / 10 you may have to override driver enforcement (google "driver enforcement")

Restart the IDE (optional but I always do it)

Plug in the MKR and hopefully you should see the board appear under the COM / LPT ports (hidden devices under win 10)

Also avoid USB 3.0 ports wherever possible and if you cannot do that insert a POWERED USB 2.0 hube between the USB 3.0 port and the Arduino.

Cables as mentioned above come in two types for the micro USB

  1. Power only. But as you are getting a device of some sort seen it is doubtful if that is the cause.
  2. Power and DATA.

Only use the 2nd one to program boards.

What driver did you use? I also get my MKRFOX1200 today and I can not use it with Windows 7, because there are now drivers for this board yet.

I cant see any driver in the newest SAMD board package 1.6.14. :frowning:

@ schenzel

You can try to manually install.
They are not part of the actual board package AFAIK but called BY the board package when that is installed.

Pretty much all the drivers are in the arduino drivers folder.

Depending where you installed the IDE it will be x\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\drivers (x being the drive letter)

You should be able to use the "dpinst-amd64" for a 64 bit system or "dpinst-x86" for a 32 bit system.

There is also a step through here that may be of use.

I would suggest you try that method first as the board uses the same MCU AFAIK.

thanks for the hint @Ballsrewbob

I have edited the hardware ID in "C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\samd\1.6.14\drivers\arduino-samd.inf" to match with the MKRFOX1200 board.

I changes under [DeviceList.NTamd64] this

%sme_fox.sketch.name%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_2341&PID_E002&MI_00
%sme_fox.bootloader.name%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_2341&PID_E001

into this:

%sme_fox.sketch.name%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_2341&PID_8050&MI_00
%sme_fox.bootloader.name%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_2341&PID_8050

Now I have a serial connection to the board.

Great that you have it working but not sure if just changing the PID&VID would be a long term fix.

You could run into issues if you added a different MKR to the mix such as the MKR1000 etc.
This might be a good issue to put up on GITHUB.

EDIT just noticed there is now an MKRFOX step through HERE

Hi, there's a new 1.6.15 version of the SAMD core that includes a Windows driver for the MKRFox1200. It's available via the board manager now.

Same probleme here.. First time the drivers are installed, everithing worked fine, then I upload one sample sketch and the PC dosent recognize the board anymore.. The sketch was from the official Arduino site.

Any suggestion? The board is in deep sleap and dont do serial communication with PC? If so, how can I wake up the board?

Thanks,

Robert

@czrobi007

Have you tried the "QUICKLY DOUBLE TAP" the reset button which should put it in BOOTLOADER mode on a new com port.

If that works then upload something simple like BLINK which will over ride your other sketch that you seem to have used to put it to sleep.

Also you need to add much more information about how you have things set up.
THIS POST tells you the sorts of things that are useful to get you better answers.

It works! After I double tap the reset button, the PC recognized the board and I uploaded a new sketch. Thanks!

You are welcome.

Its a well know trick on the MKR and a few other boards.

Same here, you are my hero. Was getting a bit desperate

Ballscrewbob:
@czrobi007

Have you tried the "QUICKLY DOUBLE TAP" the reset button which should put it in BOOTLOADER mode on a new com port.

If that works then upload something simple like BLINK which will over ride your other sketch that you seem to have used to put it to sleep.

Also you need to add much more information about how you have things set up.
THIS POST tells you the sorts of things that are useful to get you better answers.

If your downloaded example places the board in sleep mode, then you will lose the connection via USB....

Hi,

I had he same problem with the MKRFOX1200. Suddenly the USD port is not recognized any longer.

I did the First Configuration on the Sigfox backend, and then the Event Trigger example, this all went well.
But then the board went dead as far as the USB port was concerned.

It took a while looking for a solution, but now I think it is because the board was put to deep sleep at the end of the last uploaded sketch.

Eventually I figured out that double tapping the reset button wakes the board up again and fixes the issue.

Hope this helps.

Hey,

I also had trouble with deep sleep.

to my surprise I found out the after SigFox.begin() the little bugger is sleeping.

Would be nice if this info could be found in the reference. Arduino SigFox for MKRFox1200 - Arduino Reference

The solution is to put SigFox.debug() in front of SigFox.begin(). That way the fox stays awake.