Thanks in advance for any help!
Background - I have an older Nano V3.0. Using IDE 2.1.1 I had some trouble uploading sketches getting errors on AVRDUDE not in sync stuff but was able to get uploads using the old bootloader option.
I think I hurt the USB on the Nano. I built a card with solenoids to interface with PIR sensors. Everything working great. I wanted to update sketch and test some new sensors. I plugged one sensor in backwards (I had read this shouldn't hurt anything, just the sensor wouldn't work) but after a few minutes something smelled warm, not horrible but not normal. After, when I plugged in the Nano, Windows 10 said USB not recognized. I tried on a Windows 11 machine and the same - not recognized.
I have a FTDI to USB to serial dongle and the Nano is running fine, I see the output from my sketch in the IDE (or on putty). The IDE recognizes the port (Com4).
If I select Get Board Info - it says unrecognized board but not garbage. I didn't do this previously so don't know if abnormal.
BN:= Unknown board, VID:=0x10C4, PID:=0xEA60, SN:=0001
I had read you can upload sketches via the serial and was hoping I could update sketches that way. The FTDI US/serial I have (Adafruit 954 USB-to-TTL Serial cable) doesn't have the CTS line (I think that's what it's called) to reset the Nano. I tried holding the reset button until I saw "Uploading" in the IDE but it always fails with the not in sync 10 times failure.
Verbose output of first few lines
Using Port : COM4
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 57600
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync
I tried changing the baud rate of the usb/serial port to 57600 in DeviceManager but no joy.
I was thinking about ordering a serial to USB with a CTS/reset line but was hoping for some advice to see if possible to upload sketches given the description above or this is a lost cause. Also - if it seems reasonable that reverse plugging power/ground on a PIR sensor could cause this sort of damage?
Thanks again!
It is normal for the "Get Board Info" dialog to show "Unknown board" in the "BN" field when you have a port selected that is from a general purpose USB to serial adapter chip rather than from an identified Arduino board. The reason is that the general purpose USB to serial adapter chips don't have a USB VID/PID identifier that is unique to a single specific Arduino board.
Not relevant to your problem, but I'll mention it since I noticed and it is possible it might cause confusion for other helpers later in the thread: this VID/PID pair indicates that your USB to serial dongle uses a Silicon Labs CP210x chip, not a chip manufactured by FTDI. Since USB to serial adapter modules and cables based on the FTDI FT232R chip were historically prevalent in the Arduino world, it is somewhat common to refer to this general class of tool colloquially as "FTDI", even though that is not actually accurate in cases where the tool is based on one of the several equivalent chips made by other manufacturers.
That procedure should work.
It is possible for a short or external circuitry connected to the Arduino board to interfere with the upload process, causing this type of upload error.
Make sure the board is not sitting on anything conductive that could short the contacts on the bottom of the board. Make sure there isn't any conductive debris (e.g., strands of wire or component leads) on the board or on the surface the board is sitting on.
If you have a shield or any external circuitry or components connected to your Arduino board, try this experiment:
Disconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board from your computer.
Disconnect any shields, modules, external circuitry, etc. from your board.
Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
Now try uploading a sketch to the board again. Does the upload succeed?
This experiment will determine whether the upload error was caused by interference from your external circuitry. If so, you can then focus your attention on identifying the specific problem with the circuit and resolving it.
Thanks for suggestions.
To clarify, the only way I can communicate with the Nano is via the psuedo FTDI serial to USB. The board ID query was via that so interesting info on the chip used and that all makes sense.
When I use the USB on the Nano Windows does not recognize the device.
I'll take the Nano off the board and check again.
Sorry for slow response. It took a while to sort out problems.
It seems the inability to recognize the USB was intermittent connector or cable. I took off the nano and it worked. I put it back, it worked. I think the problem was the plug was getting pushed up by some wires on the board. I put the nano on higher headers and at least the USB is always recognized.
I am having issues with that nano resetting when writing to some ports but I'll post that separately when I've clarified better.( I have a nano every and an old nano. The every works find with the same code - the old nano does not so I'm thinking I did hurt the nano.)