Hi. I just bought a Arduino and went about installing the software on my eeepc. Installation guide mentions installing the USB UART Driver but I am not having much success. The Windows XP Device manager also does not list the Ports (COM & LPT1) option, likely because it does not have COM or LPT1 ports on the netbook. How can I program my Arduino? FYI - I also have the netbook dual booted to Ubuntu also. I know I can download the dev software for Linux, but will I still have port problems?
Installation guide mentions installing the USB UART Driver but I am not having much success.
Properly installing the USB driver that supports the Arduino board creates a virtual comm port on you PC. The fact that you do not have physical comm ports on your PC is not an issue, installing the driver correctly is.
Thanks for the quick response
I finally downloaded the FTDI drivers but I am having problems installing. Whenever I plugin the Arduino via USB port, it identifies it as an Arduino Uno and when I follow the dialogs to install the driver, it fails to install says that "hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software". My assumption is that because Windows identifies it as a Arduino Uno and not a USB UART it fails to install. Does that sound like the issue?
I read the FTDI Driver installation guide and it mentions doing driver pre-installation as a possible fix. Does this sound about right?
Any help is appreciated.
The Uno differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega8U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.
On the page Newbie mentioned - chapter 4 - is the installation of an Arduino UNO explained. Did it work for the eeepc? Hope to hear it soon as such device is on my X-mas list
Thanks for all the tips. Chapter 4 of the windows guide was close but does not take into account that the eeepc and possibly other netbooks do not list Port (COM & LPT) in the Device Manager list, and that when the Arduino UNO is plugged in it is identified as "Other Device". That said, this is how I got it to work.
Plugin Arduino Uno to USB. Will be detected as Arduino Uno but that can be ignored.
Open device Manager. You will see Arduino Uno highlighted with Yellow warning under Other Devices.
Select Arduino Uno and right mouse button, select Update Driver.
Select "No not at this time". Hit Next
Select install from specific location. Hit Next
Select "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install". This is different from the guide. Hit Next.
Now select the Hardware Type, in this case "Ports (COM & LPT)". Hit Next.
Select "Have Disk" from the "Select Device Driver" dialog. Navigate to the Drivers directory of the Arduino sofware previously downloaded. Pick the Arduino UNO inf file. Hit Open. Hit OK.
Hit Next, and Hit Continue at all the warnings dialogs.
When you get back to the Device Manager the Arduino UNO is now displayed under the Ports (COM & LPT).
All is now wonderful, and I uploaded a sketch to make sure the port was configure correctly.
I hope this method can be added to the install instructions for those developers who do not see the Port (COM & LPT) in the Device Manager List.
