Did I brick my pro micro?

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

red LED on
no changes in device manager when I plug it in

2

Have you tried a double click on the reset button.
A pro micro will often get itself into a mode where it needs this in order to show up as a com port.

3

Is it a power only cable?

4

It happens to so many people, there are blog posts and guides online, Google "unbrick Pro Micro". I've been through it. You can rescue the board.

5

no reset button (clone?)
data cable (tried 2 different ones)
I'll see what my search shows up-so this IS a since of brickage?

6

Then you just ground the RESET pin.

Did this happen after loading your sketch, or right out of the box from the factory?

7

yeah just tried that. no joy.. Ive played with this one for a while testing various sketches but i guess it just had a seizure.

8

No, you programmed it with rogue code that overwrote the USB bootloader code. You have to follow the unbrick instructions, and also have some patience. The button sequence may take a few times to succeed.

For that reason, when you upload next, make it a standard sketch like Blink.

9

Double tap the reset button. Yes, I know that a Pro Micro does not have a reset button (that is normal) so you will have to make a plan. This will invoke the bootloader.

If you're using Windows, you can follow the process in device manager and you should see a bootloader show up.

image.

If that does not happen (when using Windows), use a different cable; as mentioned you have a either a charge-only cable or a broken cable.

Do you have other boards (like Uno, Mega or Nano; or even a TTL-to-USB converter)? If yes, you can follow the below steps:

  1. Connect the Pro Micro with a good cable to the PC. Select the correct board in the IDE.
  2. Connect the other board to the PC as well. Select its port in the IDE.
  3. With both boards connected, start upload of an innocent sketch (empty sketch will do).
  4. When the IDE reports the memory usage, double tap the reset button.

If you don't have another board, you need a different approach but the timing is trickier.

10

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