Since a few days I lost communications with my serial monitor in IDE2 and IDE1 on a W11 PC.
I have played with some serial terminals like YAT (yet another terminal) and Coolterm.
YAT works, Coolterm also not anymore.
I use the terminal monitor, besides a BLE serial terminal and a HTML page to control my app. The BLE and HTML input and output works fine
I normally compile with the Arduino core 2.0.17 and tried older versions of my apps, changed COM-port settings uploaded via DFU, changed all options in the board settings, compiled with older versions of the libraries that were update since last week, and tried other Nano ESP32’s. Baud rate et cetera are also correct.
The Nano ESP32 crashed of course many times and lost it’s serial ports but could it get back working by uploading Blink and resetting by double clicking the reset button and disconnecting. (Still a curious process reviving a crashed Nano)
The serial monitor connects, sees the port but no communications. No output and input does not reach the Nano ESP32. The same communication send to the serial terminal are also send to a BLE serial monitor and that works fine
When I use the Espressif Nano ESP32 core 3.3.0 my sketches that use the serial monitor for input and output uploads fine and the serial monitor works as expected.
For some reason I suspect that YAT has changed some COM settings. But I have used it since 2 months and until this week it gave no problems. But I must confess the serial monitor in de IDE had to be started several times the last few months before input and output became working.
I did not play with the settings in boards.txt.
It could be that the core 3.3.0 correct a COM setting and the 2.0.17 does not.
libraries used:
Using library Adafruit NeoPixel at version 1.15.1 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\Adafruit_NeoPixel
Using library Preferences at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\Preferences
Using library NimBLE-Arduino at version 2.3.6 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\NimBLE-Arduino
Using library WiFi at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\WiFi
Using library WebServer at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\WebServer
Using library Update at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\Update
Using library ESPmDNS at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\ESPmDNS
Using library DNSServer at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\DNSServer
Using library Wire at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\Wire
Using library RTClib at version 2.1.4 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\RTClib
Using library Adafruit BusIO at version 1.17.4 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\Adafruit_BusIO
Using library Encoder at version 1.4.4 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\Encoder
Using library Keypad at version 3.1.1 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\Documents\Files\Arduino\libraries\Keypad
Using library FS at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\FS
Using library SPI at version 2.0.0 in folder: C:\Users\ednie\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\hardware\esp32\2.0.18-arduino.5\libraries\SPI
Between the esp32 core 3.3.0 and 2.0.17 the only difference is nano_nora.serial.disableDTR=true nano_nora.serial.disableRTS=true
when nano_nora.serial.disableDTR and RTS set to false in the 2.0.17 board.txt I got my communication with the serial monitor back but not on the original COM9 but COM8. No DFU and ESP32 family.
I removed the IDE 1 and 2 package from my PC, restarted and installed it again.
I burned a new bootloader on my Nano.
Nothing helps. Uploading a sketch, no matter which, with 2.0.17 removes the DFU and gives me COM8
uploading with the 3.3.0 core and everything functions as expected.
Uploading with core 2.0.17 on my Macbook Pro. –> Everything OK
Connecting the Nano to my W11 PC –> Com9 back, DFU back Serial monitor back
Uploading the sketch with 2.0.17 and gone COM9 and back COM8 (ESP32 family)
Before uploading I have the same report as below on MacOS Tahoe and W11
Opening DFU capable USB device... Device ID 2341:0070 Device DFU version 0101 Claiming USB DFU Interface... Setting Alternate Interface #0 ... Determining device status... DFU state(2) = dfuIDLE, status(0) = No error condition is present DFU mode device DFU version 0101 Device returned transfer size 4096 Copying data from PC to DFU device
Hi @ednieuw. Is there a specific reason you want to use 2.0.17?
If you do need to use a 2.x version of the platform, I recommend using version 2.0.18-arduino.5 of the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform. This version is very similar to version 2.0.17, but with some small Nano ESP32-related things Arduino backported from the 3.x version series.
Excellent idea to check what changed in the board definition between the two versions!
However, you must have made that change. The values of those properties were false even in 2.0.17:
There were no changes to the board definition between the two versions.
@ptillisch 2.0.17 was the only core that gave no errors with the libraries I use since 3.2.0. especially WIFI and Neopixel. for the last and I wrote my own for the SK6812 and WS2812 LEDs.
I suspect one of the Serial terminal apps (YAT or Coolterm) changed something in the Serial port settings of W11.
So I last I looked for differences in the boards.txt setting DTR and RTS. That was long a problem setting (true/false) with the ESP32 C3 and S3 MCU’s and the Serial terminal. Changing true to false solved that these boards did not work in the serial terminal
What is happening now is something that can only be solved by the developers. Something deep in my COM port settings in W11 is corrupted and not properly reset by 2.0.17.
Maybe is is time for the Arduino team to start with core 3.3.0 as an upgrade. The Nano ESP32 is hard to find between the hundreds of ESP32 boards in the official Boards list.
maybe somebody can give me a hint to get W11 and 2.0.17 running properly again
This behavior indicates you uploaded a sketch to the Nano ESP32 board while you had "Debug mode (Hardware CDC)" selected from Arduino IDE's Tools > USB Mode menu. This "hardware CDC" configuration is required for some specific advanced use cases (example), but otherwise the default "TinyUSB" configuration makes the board a bit easier to use.
Did you intentionally configure the board in "hardware CDC" mode? If so, do you still need it to be in this mode?
I'm glad you were able to solve the problem. Thanks for taking the time to post an update.
In the future, when you make a modification to the platform configuration files, I recommend carefully noting that, as it can lead to quite some confusing behavior as you learned. You can add comments to the boards.txt file by starting the line with a # character.
@ptillisch The problem was not solved with changing the standard settings nano_nora.serial.disableDTR and CTS from false in 2.0.17 to true.
But I remembered an old trick: create a new user account and install the program in there. And that worked! Serial communication was working again.
But in my own account the problem was still there.
Uninstalling and reinstalling the IDE1 and IDE2 did not work.
Also renaming the IDE folders in c:\Users\\Appdata folder did not work. The IDE still remembered the recent files et cetera.
But deleting the folder c:\Users\\.arduinoIDE\ solved my serial communication problem.
Maybe a nice addition in the IDE. ‘Reset all settings’