I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. I have tried two different boards (ESP32 and ESP8266) on both OSX (Sonoma 14) and Windows 11 and I simply can not get any boards to show up on either system.
ESP32 Board Info: ESP32 DEVKITV1 VCP: CP2102 Link:Amazon Link
ESP8266 Board Info: Mini NodeMCU ESP8266 / ESP-12F
"VCP:" CH340C Link:Amazon Link
I have tried using both boards on both OSX 14.2.1 and Windows 11. In both cases:
I first installed the latest appropriate VCP drivers (CH340 & CP210X), this didn't work on either system for either board.
So then I also installed the latest FTDI VCP drivers (CDM212364).
I have tried multiple USB cables and multiple USB ports but nothing changes with the Ports in either system.
Since this is happening with multiple boards on multiple systems, the problem has to be with something I am doing. What am I not doing or doing wrong? Can anyone please help? I've invested days into trying to get this to work.
Give it time to go around the world; those that are in the know might be sleeping
First thing that comes to mind is cables; the ESP8266 uses a micro USB connector. Cables for this come in two flavours: charge-only and data/sync; you'll need the latter.
Not sure about the connector on the ESP32 board that you have; the same might apply.
What does your operating system think of your boards? In Windows, it will be Windows device manager; is it recognised there?
Sorry for being impatient, I have posted this question on Reddit also and can't seem to get anyone to reply so am a little discouraged.
Oddly, my ESP8266 has a USB-C connector. The ESP32 has the micro-USB-C connector. I am aware of the difference between the two types of cable and was pretty sure I was using data cables, but I am going to triple check on this because this would make sense, but pretty sure they are data cables. If I don't update this it means they are data cables.
Windows Device Manager just shows COM PORT 1 which is always there, nothing else shows up when either board is connected - that's the main issue I am having.
Thanks for responding. Have any other ideas by chance?
I've discovered that in order to get my ESP8266 boards to show up as a serial port on MacOS on my MacBook Air M2 I need to use a specific hub between the ESP and my Mac. I have two cheap usb-c hubs with 2.0 ports that work. I have another USB 2 hub that doesn't work and I've several 3.0 hubs that don't work. Direct connection doesn't work either. I can't find any rhyme or reason to it, just some hubs work and some don't.. so I use the ones that work. I don't have to install any special drivers. This is the case for the ESP8266 with USB type C and micro-usb connections. Don't give up if the ESP8266 doesn't show up in MacOS, just try putting a USB-2 hub in the middle.. and if that doesn't work try a different hub.
