Hi,
I was trying to copy a program to arduino lilypad....but an error message showed up;
avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM1": The system cannot find the file specified.
When I opened the tools section;(attached)
Check device manager (Windows) or the Linux/Mac equivalent and see what is happening when you connect/disconnect the board.
pjrc
August 29, 2018, 8:39am
3
Click Tools > Ports to select the serial port for your Lilypad. It's almost certainly not COM1.
If you're unsure which one, try with and without the USB-serial cable plugged into your computer. When it's plugged in, you should see 1 more port appear when you click the menu. Select that one.
Your message inspired me to create this issue, asking for the default COM1 to be changed, so everyone will get a better first-use experience when trying to upload without having selected the port.
opened 07:31PM - 28 Aug 18 UTC
closed 02:39PM - 03 Sep 18 UTC
Component: IDE
feature request
Perhaps the default port name should be changed to a string which users can unde… rstand means they have not yet selected a port?
Today the default is COM1. Perhaps this dates all the way back to Arduino's origin, when the board actually had a 9 pin serial connector and most PCs still had physical 9 pin serial ports? Today almost no PCs have 9 pin serial ports exposed, but it's still very common to have an unused 10 pin header on the motherboard which actually implements COM1.
When a first-time user tries to upload to their Uno, Nano, or other AVR-based board, they see this rather unhelpful error:
**avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\\.\COM1": The system cannot find the file specified.**
Or...
**Using Port : COM1
Using Programmer : wiring
Overriding Baud Rate : 115200
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
avrdude: stk500v2_getsync(): timeout communicating with programmer**
Ideally the first-time user experience should be a helpful message which explains they need to click Tools > Ports to select the their board. If the default name were something which could not possibly be a valid port on any OS, then the IDE could check for that setting before running AVRDUDE or other upload tools.
