I think I found the problem and have it worked out. I've been able to communicate with a nano, esp8266, esp32, and Uno. Sketches uploaded and the serial monitor sends and receives info with the different boards. I used the Arduino IDE 2.x.x. nightly builds and used the Agent for online for sketches and serial monitoring on the M1. I have also used all the same things on my Windows 11 side via Parallels.
Now, I got to that point by trying a multitude of various drivers and software in several different combinations. Then getting to the point of frustration where i removed everything i did and basically gave up on it until my curiosity of wanting to tinker with my new CNC got the best of me.
Credit will go to Bart Dring and the hard work he and some others have done (and continue to do) with his development of FluidNC, a next level CNC program powered by the ESP32. Because of how he developed and wrote the scripts for flashing FluidNC to an ESP32, it requires the use of Python whether it's Mac or Windows. Please check out Barts work, he has some great stuff out there on github GitHub - bdring/FluidNC: The next generation of motion control firmware and also check out his channel https://www.youtube.com/user/engserve
Part of the software setup side of thing, you have to run python and use that to load esptool onto your system. It is my belief that python, esptool, plus the specific driver for your particular board is what finally tied everything together. The 2 drivers I used to get started were the CH340 (for most of the older arduino boards) and the CP2102 runs the UART bridge on the ESP32's I have. Once all of those are installed, make sure to close everything out and reboot. This combination seems to work good....and i only say good because it isnt flawless and can have a few quirks about it at times.
A few procedures I have worked out that seem to help out:
- As stated above, reboot your computer after installing a new software or a new driver
- It seems to help at times by plugging in your board BEFORE opening the IDE or Create website
- I always verify the USB connection before preceding. Click Apple at the top left corner, about this mac, system report, select usb on the left side and you should see your board listed under one of the usb 3.1 lines. This indicates apple sees it and has gotten data from it. Clicking the device line will give you some stats about the device and connection speeds.
- Load up your IDE, comm terminal, or whatever you want to use to play with your board.
You should now be able to see your port/board in the port list with some soft of hardware info tag from the board. Here is another quirk I have found. If you have to change the board type and port in the IDE from a previous board to a different you are using now, sometime you will need to complete close out the IDE the open it again before it will connect right. Ive only seen my do it sometimes so it may not always do it for you or may not do it at all.
Hope this can help out anyone that is having the M1 connection issues.