I have a reoccurring problem with both IDEs 1.x and 2.x where it either can't find a port or is unable to use it. This happens with both my 2560 and MKR NB 1500 boards. I have been doing all my development recently with the 1500 and that's when it goes into this mode. Then I can't upload to the 2560 either.
All 3 of my ports work for my wireless mouse and a thumb drive when the IDE problem exists so I know my Windows PC isn't the cause of the problem. I have tried shutting down numerous times and after usually a week or more it is miraculously fixed.
Hi @stevo265. Is your system in this bad state right now?
If so, what is the specific symptom at this time? You mentioned two different symptoms:
I am guessing that by "unable to use it", you mean that you can select the port of the board in Arduino IDE, but that when you attempt to upload to the board the upload fails. Is that correct?
I am having similar issue (I think) with Arduino R4. I am interest to see where this goes. Is this a Windows install. I am also working with Linux on a VBox and am having even bigger issues.
OK, that makes the situation with the MKR NB 1500 board more clear to me. Just to be sure, was the MKR NB 1500 board connected to your computer with a USB cable at the time of the screenshot?
Did you also have the Mega 2560 board connected to your computer at the time you took that screenshot?
Please try this experiment and then report back with the results:
Connect your MKR NB 1500 board to your computer with the USB cable (if it isn't already connected).
Press and release the button marked "RST" on the MKR NB 1500 board quickly twice.
Now please reply here on the forum thread with the answers to the following questions:
Do you now see the LED on the board pulsing?
Do you see a port for the board in the PORTS menu in that Arduino IDE "Select Other Board and Port" dialog?
Just so you know, the "com ports" you are looking for don't exist in hardware. They are created from a USB input and a driver on your PC. This means when the board is not connected to the PC, the port also does not exist.
With the board connected, you should look at the windows device manager.
Here you can see my board is "seen" by the computer as COM4.
My 1500 board was connected to the PC when I took the screenshot.
I have never connected the 1500 and 2560 boards to the PC at the same time.
I am developing a sketch for the 1500 that will operate from a 12 volt battery. I think what triggered this was I forgot to plug the USB cable into the PC and tried to upload to the board and tried to plug it in before it was done compiling but was too late and interfered with the upload process.
There have been times when I tried to upload and there were compilation errors. This should have just aborted the upload but it then went into the "COM not connected" mode. Since then I always run a "check" prior to uploading.
I see a similar behavior with the com port for an ESP32 board that uses a software port. It will happen if the board goes to "sleep" in my case after I've successfully connected to the board. It will go active again when the board wakes up (in my case due to a timer interrupt). So I suspect that your board has suspended communications with the Windows computer for some reason.
