Hi - I'm working with NodeMCU and when I plug into my laptop, no port shows up in device manager. There isn't even a ports node in my device manager at all.
On my desktop with the same devices everything is fine.
Am I missing a windows driver or something?
See attached.
Think I figured this out - looks like trying a bunch of different USB cables worked. Nuts - any easy way to tell which cables work and which don't without trial and error?
Some cables might be charge-only cables.
When you find a cable that doesn't work, throw it out.
There are charge only cables (some of these have an icon on them to mark them as such, but there's no consistent standard for what that icon is), and there are shoddy chinese cables that may work initially but are failure prone, and on these, often data will fail before charging (because the power wires are thicker). There's no consistent way to identify cables like this, other than that quality USB cables won't have this problem.
I got fed up with this issue a while back and bought a bunch of nicer cables, and use those instead of the random cheapo ones that came with USB devices I've bought.
larrywal32:
Think I figured this out - looks like trying a bunch of different USB cables worked. Nuts - any easy way to tell which cables work and which don't without trial and error?
Maybe you have found the way. Connect the cable to your favourite reliable device and if it doesn't appear in the COMs list then it's a charge-only cable.
I'm going to scrounge any camera USB cables I come across. A branded cable is going to be good quality and carry data. Canon ones are white which helps identify them.
