Sparkfun Pro Micro Issues

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hey there!

Just to preface, I am extremely new to most things Arduino however I had extremely basic knowledge in it and would say I am tech savvy and very capable with most IT and PC related troubleshooting etc (if that helps at all). Sorry if this post is long winded, I just want to try and be clear and concise as to make things straight forward, hopefully...

My operating system is Windows 10.
This post has to do with a Sparkfun Pro Micro.
Generally when I refer to sketch, I'm just using the Blink sketch.

I've recently purchased a spark fun pro micro and Leonardo. I was just playing around with the two until once I uploaded my first sketch onto the pro micro, it seemed to have disconnected and my pc did not recognise the UBS device. The only illuminated LED on the board was a singular red one. Unplugging and reconnecting it yielded no results. Uploading any sketch was impossible, as of course, the device was not recognised.

Previous to this I had never had any issues with connections, resets or anything of the sort with the Leonardo and an Uno of mine.

I tried looking up the issue on multiple forum posts and had a look if anyone else had a similar issue and did find multiple posts, most of which directed me to try and reset the board and the like. Through this I did figure out that to get it to reset 'properly'. I had to double tap the reset - ground pins with a jumper wire on the spark fun pro micro. Further following the posts, I tried resetting while the sketch was uploading and got success in the regard that it would recognise the port and start to upload the code. Right after the upload the board would start flashing a yellow and green light for a small period but then die out to the singular red one, and in contrast to the success that other people got after that, my pro micro would just seem to disconnect and reconnect with the same issue it had before. Back to just being "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed" in my device manager with the same static red LED.

I tried doing this MANY times as it seemed extremely hopeful, however I didn't really achieve anything. To me at least it seemed that no one else had an issue past being able to upload a sketch onto the board.

I wanted to buy locally so I bought this board from an Australian retailer and spent around $30 AUD on this board, so any help would be greatly appreciated :smiley:

Thank you so much in advance.

If anyone needs any images I'm more than happy to supply them.

2

Which board do you have selected in the Arduino IDE's Tools > Board menu?

3

pert:
Which board do you have selected in the Arduino IDE's Tools > Board menu?

I have Arduino Leonardo selected.

4

The symptoms you describe could be caused by using this selection with the "3.3V/8MHz" version of the SparkFun Pro Micro:

The reason is that the Leonardo works at 16 MHz, so when you compile a sketch for a 16 MHz board and then upload it to a board that is running at 8 MHz, all the timings are only half the speed they are supposed to be.

If you're using that board, you'll need to install the "SparkFun AVR Boards" platform by following this guide:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-board-definitions-in-the-arduino-ide/all

After that, do this:

  • Tools > Board > SparkFun AVR Boards > SparkFun Pro Micro
  • Tools > Processor > ATmega32U4 (3.3V, 8 MHz)
  • Upload the Blink sketch, using the reset trick you learned.

You should now find that your board is recognized and you can upload without needing to reset the board.

5

pert:
The symptoms you describe could be caused by using this selection with the "3.3V/8MHz" version of the SparkFun Pro Micro:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/10999
The reason is that the Leonardo works at 16 MHz, so when you compile a sketch for a 16 MHz board and then upload it to a board that is running at 8 MHz, all the timings are only half the speed they are supposed to be.

If you're using that board, you'll need to install the "SparkFun AVR Boards" platform by following this guide:
Installing Board Definitions in the Arduino IDE - SparkFun Learn

After that, do this:

  • Tools > Board > SparkFun AVR Boards > SparkFun Pro Micro
  • Tools > Processor > ATmega32U4 (3.3V, 8 MHz)
  • Upload the Blink sketch, using the reset trick you learned.

You should now find that your board is recognized and you can upload without needing to reset the board.

Thank you so much! Who knew reading a Hookup Guide would do wonders haha.

There take my karma.

1 Like
6

You're welcome. I'm glad if I was able to be of assistance. Enjoy!
Per

7

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