Hi Yesterday my pro micro arrived, my first arduino i ever owned. To try it out i uploaded a blink onboard led sketch, but after that my pc stopped recognizing the pro micro: device manager said usb device not recognized (description request device etc). So I tried to go to bootloader mode, shorting reset and ground pins twice: after some tries, the leds stopped blinking and the pro micro wasn't detected by the pc at all (also tx and rx leds stopped flashing when connected to usb, so no communication). I'm not successful in entering bootloader mode, i don't know what to do. Today when i connected the pro micro to the pc the leds were lit all the time and the pc detected it but didn't recognize it; tried reset, tx and rx leds turned off and since then the arduino isn't detected by the pc like before. What can I do? I don't have another arduino to reprogram it. Thanks!
Some clones described as "pro micro" (not all) used the CH340 drivers.
Certainly worth a shot.
Also USB 3.0 can cause the sorts of problem you are seeing too so maybe ensure you are on a USB 2.0 port.
USB cables can be hit and miss so make sure you are using a known working cable. (also not a USB 3.0 cable)
ballscrewbob:
Some clones described as "pro micro" (not all) used the CH340 drivers.Certainly worth a shot.
I can't help, but a pro micro is supposed to be a 32U4 based board; no additional serial-to-usb chip so no additional drivers needed.
Thanks for the replies! What an amazing community! Yeah, I tried installing ch340 drivers but nothing to do... As Sterretje says probably this chip isn't on the board (I looked at the board and there is no "ch340" component). I used usb 2.0 usbs since my oldschool netbook doesn't have any 3.0 ones... Probably there is a problem with the board (when it was working connecting it to pc made TX and Rx flash few times; now only the power led lits). I don't know what to do... As I said there's no way to enter bootloader mode and I don't have another Arduino to reprogram it
I know what you are saying IEE and yes you are 100% correct but trawl the ebay adverts for examples of bad descriptions by sellers that have no idea what they are doing.
ballscrewbob:
I know what you are saying IEE and yes you are 100% correct but trawl the ebay adverts for examples of bad descriptions by sellers that have no idea what they are doing.
Sry I don't understand what you are saying.. what does "trawl" mean? Sorry
mattodinaturas:
Sry I don't understand what you are saying.. what does "trawl" mean? Sorry
Trawl means to take a look at many of the eBay auctions.
The Chinese sellers are clueless, so what they say is not always true.
.
Ok gotcha... I think I'm gonna return this shitty promicro clone and take an original Leonardo; however the promicro is pretty nice because I can hook up the 3.3v RFID card reader without using a stepdown
sterretje:
In that case, you can buy an original SparkFun one.
It's pretty expensive... If I'm gonna buy another Arduino probably I'll take a Leonardo original since the price is so low; however, I was thinking to ask a relative who has his hands in Arduino to reprogram mine, since I think that the bootloader on my promicro is somehow corrupted.
Thanks again for the quick replies!
So you were able to upload to a 32u4 based board once but only once?
Was it blink, or some sketch you wrote?
The normal cause of a 32u4 based board taking an upload once only is that the sketch uploaded malfunctioned badly enough to hose the USB (writing off the end of an array for example will often do this), so no USB device would show up while the sketch was running, making it impossible to upload new code. But double-tap on reset button (or manually shorting RST to ground twice in rapid succession if there's no button) should fix this.
It's also possible that they set the fuses wrong, leading to the bootloader not being started when a sketch was present - in this case, reburning bootloader with an ISP programmer would sort it out (but nothing else would)
The fact that it worked once really limits the number of possible causes!
DrAzzy:
So you were able to upload to a 32u4 based board once but only once?Was it blink, or some sketch you wrote?
The normal cause of a 32u4 based board taking an upload once only is that the sketch uploaded malfunctioned badly enough to hose the USB (writing off the end of an array for example will often do this), so no USB device would show up while the sketch was running, making it impossible to upload new code. But double-tap on reset button (or manually shorting RST to ground twice in rapid succession if there's no button) should fix this.
It's also possible that they set the fuses wrong, leading to the bootloader not being started when a sketch was present - in this case, reburning bootloader with an ISP programmer would sort it out (but nothing else would)
The fact that it worked once really limits the number of possible causes!
Hi! Thanks for the reply! After I uploaded the code to get the LEDs blink (found it on the internet for the sparkfun promicro) the Arduino was communicating with my pc since device manager said that there was a not recognized usb device hooked up (it also said "request description device" or something like that). No driver made it work, so I tried shorting RST and GND twice: the result was that when I was shorting those pins the sketch stopped, and the pc didn't see anything (i have to specify that the sketch interrupted only when I was shorting: even with double short as long as I interrupted the short, the blinking restarted). Then after some more shorting the LEDs were always turned off, except obv the power one. The pc didn't detect it anymore. So I decided to call it a day and went to sleep. Next day I tried hooking up the pro micro: all the LEDs were lit, no blinking; the device manager said "usb device not recognized: request device descript" or something like that like when the sketch was running fine. Tried resetting: TX and RX turned off. Since then the Arduino is not detected by the pc like before, it seems like it's powered with a only power usb cable.
Note the Arduino Pro Micro original Sparkfun or Clones DO NOT use any USB to serial chip like the CH340.
The ATmega32U4 has USB 2.0 support on board.
Im wondering if the O/P ever got this resolved as its exactly the same position I'm currently in.
...but still we are no closer to solving.
So after 4 frustrating days, I plugged the pro micro in on a whim as a gesture of last rights before sending it to the incinerator, and the PC beeped, the lights flashed and it got recognised as an arduino micro on com port 18, very much out of the blue. I uploaded a sketch to it and it sat there for 4 minutes, beeped and reset itself to dormant bricked state again. Matches and blowotrch now at the ready.
No, tried 3 different cables and nothing soldered onto pins yet, I think I got a faulty one 