Serial Communications

Hardware WiFi Shield 101
1

Seeing sporadic serial communications with the WiFi101 shield added.

This is what I'm experiencing - each is an and:

  1. Using arduino.cc Zero and WiFi101 (ONLY - no other components)
  2. In Arduino IDE - many IDE and board and library versions over last 6 months
  3. 100% of time - I get ack on sketch upload via programming and native USB ports.
  4. I have tried all speed 9600 to 115200
  5. Have used 3 different MAC computers w/ OS 10.9-10.2
  6. Have tried w/ and w/o FTDI drivers
  7. Have power-cycled the computer
  8. Have left the serial window open and closed
  9. 100% of the time any valid sketch works w/o WiFi101 attached.
  10. Have tried many USB cables - including name brand and military grade (blackberry)
  11. Have set sketches to output on USBSerial > native or Serial > programming ports.
  12. All other boards used including UNO R3, Sparkfun SAMD and 328, Adafruit metros etc work flawlessly.

Those are the conditions I have used

In sketches where serial line output is needed, seeing inconsistent results using all of the above conditions (yes, have been at this for a long time) with these observations:

Example Sketch "check firmware" - get serial output 90%
Example Sketch "NTP time check" - get serial output 80%
Example Sketch "Scan networks" - get serial output 80%
JSON parsing sketches - 40% output.

Serial Port Window closed sketch runs and wifi connect led illuminates
Pressing reset on zero has no impact
Open IDE serial port window - zero ON led illuminates solid immediately when no output coming - when output coming led blinks on/off related to serial output.

Have read just about every post.

Looking at the schematics and getting up to speed on the pin connections etc - I see SDL/SCA connections and pin 0/1 serial connections - which should have no impact on my situation but wondering just the same.

Also have tried w/ and w/o the while hardware and connection loops as some earl posts reported observed issues.

At my wits end - considering shelving this combo and waiting for the upcoming replacement.

Hardly see the point posting code since I am using all stock code - would be very happy to use a few sketches anyone can think of to see if we can pin this down.

Thanks
Bob.

2

Hello

I have the Arduino Zero & Arduiino WiFi101, Mac OSX Mountain Lion on Early 2008 MacBookPro 17inch., Arduino IDE 1.6.7.

Have run every example in Arduino IDE WiFi101
I have never had any problem connecting with the Serial Monitor and receive output.

The important thing is to ensure that the Baud Rate of the Serial Monitor matches the Baud Rate of the Sketch.
Some sketches are set at 9600 while some are set at higher.