What is the error indicated by the yellow triangle in the Board and Port drop down?
Not running 2.0 yet but I'd hazard a guess that it is saying that COM3 isn't available.
Hi @bob011. Modern official Arduino boards (with the exception of the classic Nano), and some 3rd party boards use a unique VID/PID USB identifier that was purchased by the manufacturer of the board. When the port of the board has this unique identifier, the Arduino IDE is able to automatically detect the board associated with that port.
Other boards, including many of the Chinese derivative boards, use a cheaper USB chip (e.g., CH340) which has a generic VID/PID provided by the manufacturer of the chip. In this case, there is no way to identify which board might be associated with that identifier, or even whether it is an Arduino board at all (some commercial products also use those chips). This 
icon is the Arduino IDE's way of communicating that the port was not identified and that it can't be sure that you have selected the correct port for your board.
The Arduino IDE developers are tracking the need to improve this user experience here:
If you have a GitHub account, you can subscribe to that issue to get notifications of any new developments related to this subject.
It turns out that COM3 is running. I'm using it, also it's shown in the Device Manager working properly.
Hi ptillisch,
Thanks for responding quickly.
Ah yes, I'm using an old knock-off. I do have a new authentic Uno R3, I'll give it a try.
Suggestion: Use a cursor fly-over drop-down the explain the symbol.
BTW the quality of the authentic Uno R3's pcb and its stenciling are clearly far superior to that of the knock-off. I suspect that's true of the entire authentic UNO R3, worth the extra cost. The pin labeling on the female pin connectors is very helpful. The labels save connection errors, this is particularly true for new or infrequently users. It would be a good marketing and user support point to show an image of the labeled sockets in sales and marketing information.
Thanks again!
Thanks. I think it is a good idea. This request is being tracked by the Arduino IDE developers here:
Even as a frequent user I find them very useful. On my boards without labeled headers, I always end up counting from one end of the header to make sure I am getting the connection right.
On a board I use frequently for experimentation and development for years, it is likely that the convenience of the labels alone would be worth the extra cost even without considering any other factors.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.