Hi everyone,
I’m having an issue with my Bare Conductive Touch Board—it’s no longer being detected via the serial port. I’ve confirmed it’s not a micro USB cable issue, as I tested the same cable with another Touch Board and it works fine.
Since the Bare Conductive Touch Board has been retired and is no longer in production, I’d really like to try fixing this one if possible. I’ve attempted to reach out to Bare Conductive via email and Instagram, but unfortunately, I haven’t received any response.
According to the datasheet, the board is Arduino-compatible and based on the Atmel ATMega32U4 microcontroller (it shows up as an Arduino Leonardo in the Arduino IDE).
I’m considering trying to burn the bootloader using the standard Arduino Leonardo bootloader method. Do you think this is a viable approach? Has anyone successfully revived a Touch Board this way?
I’ve followed the instructions. After connecting the Arduino board (Bare Touch Board) to my computer and pressing the reset button twice quickly, the red LED marked “L” started pulsing approximately 12 to 13 times, then stayed steadily ON.
As far as I understand, if the board is functioning properly, the “L” LED shouldn’t remain ON continuously.
I’ve attached an image for your reference.
Many thanks again!
This is a good sign. It tell us the following things:
The ATmega32U4 microcontroller on the board is at least somewhat functional.
The bootloader program that facilitates sketch uploads is present on the microcontroller and at least in a somewhat functional state.
Please add a forum reply here to tell us which operating system you are using (e.g., "Windows")?
I ask for this information so that we can give you the appropriate instructions for your operating system.
What do you mean by "shows up"? Do you still see it "showing up" in Arduino IDE now?
I interpreted this statement as meaning that, when you connect the board to your computer with a USB cable, you don't see a port for the board in Arduino IDE's Tools > Port menu:
However, I would also interpret "shows up" as meaning there is a port for the board, so the two seemingly contradictory statements are confusing to me.
Here is the information about my operating system and Arduino version:
macOS Sonoma 14.5
Computer: 2019 Intel Core i9
Arduino IDE: 2.3.6
Sorry for the confusion. I was trying to share the information that the Bare Conductive Touch Board has at its heart the Arduino ATmega32U4 microcontroller. Let me clarify below:
For a normally functioning Touch Board, I can see the board as “Bare Conductive Touch Board” with a port indicating the connection.
However, the problematic Bare Conductive Touch Board doesn’t show a port for the board. It is also confirmed that the problem is not due to the micro USB cable, as I used the same cable for connecting with another Touch Board and everything is working.
Please try this troubleshooting procedure and then report the results:
This procedure is not intended to solve the problem. The purpose is to gather more information.
Click the Apple logo on the left side of the menu bar at the top of the screen ("Apple menu").
Select "System Settings..." from the menu.
A "System Settings" window will open. Click "General" in the menu on the left side of the window. ⓘ You may need to scroll the menu down to see "General".
Click "About" on the panel at the right side of the "System Settings" window.
The "About" panel will open. Click the "System Report..." button at the bottom of the panel.
The "System Information" window will now open. Select Hardware > USB from the tree on the left side of the window.
Take note of the contents of the "USB Device Tree" panel of the "System Information" window.
Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
Press and release the reset button on the Arduino board.
Immediately select File > Refresh Information from the menu bar.
Watch for a new device to appear under the "USB Device Tree" panel of the "System Information" window.
Now please reply here on this forum topic with the answer to the following question:
Did you see a new device appear under the "USB Device Tree" panel of the "System Information" window?
You can repeat steps (9)-(11) multiple times if you are not sure.
Thanks for the clarification.
Excellent troubleshooting technique. The USB cable is indeed one of the common causes of this type of "no port for board" problems.
Thank you for the guideline.
I ran the test as instructed and observed the following:
When I connected the Arduino board to my computer, the board did not appear under the “USB Device Tree”.
After pressing the reset button on the Arduino board and selecting File > Refresh Information on my computer, a new device named “Touch Board” appeared under the “USB Device Tree” during the pulsing of the red LED marked “L” on the Arduino board.
OK, great. The tricky thing about the boards with native USB capability like your board is the USB code that creates the CDC serial port is running on the same microcontroller as your sketch. This means your sketch code can break the USB code, or stop it from running. When that happens, the board no longer produces a serial port.
This can be unexpected to those who previously mainly worked with the boards like Uno and Mega with a dedicated USB chip that can never be affected by the sketch code.
The missing port makes it so you can't upload normally any more. However, the situation is really not so bad because there is an independent program called the bootloader in a separate section of memory from your sketch, and that program has its own USB CDC code. So even if the sketch is completely broken, you only need to activate the bootloader to get a port back and be able to upload.
You need to get the timing right. If you press the reset button too early, the bootloader will have already timed out by the time the upload starts. The tricky thing is that when you press the "Upload" button in Arduino IDE, it first compiles your sketch before starting the actual upload. So you need to wait until after the compilation finishes before pressing the reset button.
Try this:
Select Sketch > Upload from the Arduino IDE menus.
Watch the black "Output" panel at the bottom of the Arduino IDE window until you see something like this:
Sketch uses 444 bytes (1%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes.
Global variables use 9 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2039 bytes for local variables.
Maximum is 2048 bytes.
Immediately press and release the reset button on the Arduino board.
The upload should now finish successfully.
Although this technique allows you to recover the board from the state where it doesn't produce a port, allowing the upload of a new sketch, it doesn't address the cause of the board going into that state. This means that if the no port state was unexpected and you upload a sketch that has the same problem that caused that state in the first place, the problem will persist. If you find this is the case, you can add a reply here on this forum topic to let us know and we'll provide assistance in identifying the problem.
Thank you so much for your kind advice and clear explanation. It was incredibly helpful, and I’m happy to share that I’ve successfully resolved the issue—it truly made my day!
I first uploaded a very basic blink sketch, which made it easier for me to grasp the timing of the transition from compiling to uploading, along with pressing the reset button. After that, I uploaded the Bare Conductive Touch Board example code, and everything worked perfectly.
Thank you once again for your generous support and kind help.
I´m replying to this forum - as fellow touchboard users - is anyone else having issues with uploading new code to their touchboard? As Bareconductive has discontinued their services / products, with it has also gone their Arduino Library. I suspect this is the reason I can´t upload any new codes onto my touch board, and I´m stuck with the .mp3 code.
Is anyone else having this issue? Is there a solution?
Hi @magohart. I'm not sure I understood correctly what you mean by "I can´t upload any new codes onto my touch board". Please provide a more detailed description of what you mean in a reply on this forum topic to help us to understand it.
Make sure to include the following information:
What did you do?
What were the results you expected from doing that thing?
What were the results you observed that did not match your expectations?
If you encountered any errors or warnings, please provide the full and exact text of those messages.
This procedure is not intended to solve the problem. The purpose is to gather more information.
