I went through a similar battle on my Windows 7 machine. It took me 2 days, but I didn't want to bug you all.
But I cant bear to do it all again for another two days... Even though its nearly the same problem, the answer isn't the same.
I've done all the obvious tricks that you read in endless forum posts.
Has anyone an idea what is going on? (It also is aggravating that one has to wait five minutes to fix a mistake in his own post but whatever.) Now the image is correct.
TheRealVictor:
I went through a similar battle on my Windows 7 machine. It took me 2 days, but I didn't want to bug you all.But I cant bear to do it all again for another two days... Even though its nearly the same problem, the answer isn't the same.
Why isn't the answer the same?
It is clearly a driver issue.
ieee488:
Why isn't the answer the same?It is clearly a driver issue.
I'll check with the Chinese vendor and try to get the exact driver. Im not holding my breath. I used the same driver in both operating systems. It said it should work. I guess saving a whole dollar wasn't really worth it huh? (I'm new at this). Just so I know, where should I be buying my ttl to usb programmer things? Does everyone just leave you to figure it out on your own or die?
I would tend to agree with Ieee.
The pictures only tell a tiny part of the story.
And without any real information it is like trying to win the lottery to get you the answer you seek.
We can see you are trying to set up a pro mini using IDE 1.6.7 and you have no port selection and that's it.
First off is it a cheap copy or a real Arduino ?
What are you using to upload (close up picture would be great) ?
Do you have anything else connected to the board ?
If you have anything connected then maybe take it off and can you try without anything connected ?
The IDE you are using is not the most stable have you tried 1.6.5 r5 or 1.6.9 ?
Did you double check the RX TX connections as they often need to be reversed ?
Can you maybe supply a picture of the wiring to the pro mini and from the ft232 (or whatever device you are using) ?
Have you tried another USB cable ?
Are you connecting directly to the computer (do not use unpowered USB hubs) ?
If it works on win 7 can you post a pic of the com port selections from device manager ?
Posted my connections to a pro mini (chinese) in case they are of any use.
I got my usb programmers from Ebay and have had no issues apart from having to install the drivers for one of them. Just google CH340 drivers and you will find plenty of direct links.
Ballscrewbob- I installed IDE 1.6.5 r5 and took some pics of my actual hardware. The wiring is hooked up exactly as I had it on the other machine that works.
Does this help at all?
It looks like it is connected OK although it lacks the DTR and CTS pins you may need for some devices.
So lets try process of elimination a little more.
Without the pro mini attached to your programmer does it show in your device manager ?
If it doesn't then we are back to a driver issue.
Maybe also follow this thread HERE as it may be relevant to your situation.
No it doesn't appear in device manager unless it is physically plugged in the usb.
If it isn't the prolific driver, do other companies make drivers for my programmer? I googled "ttl to usb" and found the prolific driver, but I got lucky on that. I don't know what I'm looking for so it's hard to search for it.
I'll read the article you posted. I think I saw a driver name up above in a reply. I'll check on that too.
TheRealVictor:
If it isn't the prolific driver, do other companies make drivers for my programmer? I googled "ttl to usb" and found the prolific driver, but I got lucky on that. I don't know what I'm looking for so it's hard to search for it.I'll read the article you posted. I think I saw a driver name up above in a reply. I'll check on that too.
You need to buy another USB to serial converter or locate the Prolific driver that will work with the chip that is used in your cable. There may or may not be one.
If you buy another adapter cable, look for one that uses the CP2102 chip or the FTDI chip.
If you are willing to the $, Sparkfun.com sells a 5V cable and 5V+3.3V FTDI cable.
You should stop referring to the adapters you have as programmers; they are not. Those are just USB/Serial adapters.
Around here, a Programmer is something that connects to the ICSP pins (Reset, SCK, MOSI, MISO, Power, Gnd) to program in a bootloader, or a sketch with no bootloader.
A USB/Serial adapter connects to the Rx/Tx pins (and power, Gnd, hopefully DTR) to upload a sketch via the previously installed bootloader.
I use FT232 adapters from www.tinyosshop.com, one has a micro USB connector, one has a mini USB connector. I buy 20 at a time for projects, all use legit FT232 chips and I don't have any issues in Win7 (and WinVista before that, and WinXP before that) with them.
@ Crossroads
And around here "a programmer is somebody who writes code"
Its a term that can be used for a large variety of things so lets not split hairs shall we.
We can see what he has and whilst it maybe not a true FT232 (not everyone has those in thier box of tricks) he has an issue with his regardless of type.
I have a CH340 and a CP2102 and they work just fine for me too on many flavours of windows inc server editions and raspberry pi's.
His picture wasn't clear enough for my poor eyes to read the chip type and work out the exactly what he has.
However if you can see it better and maybe help ?
@TheRealVictor, I just downloaded the latest Prolific PL2303 Drivers to try to get my K150 PIC programmer working with Windows 10.
Windows 8 (and, I assume, Windows 10) are not supported in the earlier versions of the PL2303 chip. (I'm out of luck too.)
My chip is labelled "PL2303HX", and is a number of years old. (I've had the board for about 4 years.)
From the "PL-2303 CheckChipVersion Tool Program v1.0.0.6" readme file:-
System Requirement:
. USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 Host Controller
. Device using PL2303HX/X/EA/RA/SA/TA/TB version chips
. PL-2303 Windows Driver Installer v1.8.0 or above
. Supports the following Windows OS Family:
- Windows XP SP2 and above (32 & 64 bit)
- Windows Vista (32 & 64 bit)
- Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit)
- Windows 8/8.1/10 (32 & 64 bit)
NOTE:- Windows 8 is NOT supported in HXA/XA chip versions (will show yellow mark Error Code 10).
- Windows 8 is supported only in following chip versions:
- PL2303HXD (HX Rev D)
- PL2303EA (ESD protection)
- PL2303RA (Built-in transceiver)
- PL2303SA (SOP8 package)
- PL2303TA (PL2303HXA/XA replacement)
- PL2303TB (12 GPIO)
Supported device ID and product strings:
. VID_067B&PID_2303 for "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port"
. VID_067B&PID_2304 for "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port" (PL2303TB chip)
. Other VID/PID based on PL2303 chip.
Like you, the device shows in "Device Manager" with a yellow exclamation mark, and in "Properties" it says:-
This device cannot start. (Code 10)
A device which does not exist was specified.
If you try to update the driver, Windows says that the best driver for the device is installed, (but it doesn't @#$% work!).
If I run the PL2303 "checkChipVersion_v1006.exe" app, it says "OPEN COM PORT FAILED".
In my case, I have an XP machine here with a working driver if I want to do any PIC programming, but it sounds like you might be up the creek without a paddle.
I'll keep an eye on this thread, in case you or someone else finds a way to make these things work with Win10, but I'm not holding my breath.
Edit: If I were you, I'd go with @Ballscrewbob's advice and change to a CP2102-based USB to TTL converter. My CP2102 modules are working fine with Win10.
Edit2: Or an FT232 or CH340 I guess, as suggested by others. Anything but a PL2303, unless you're sure it has a PL2303HXD or similar chip and not a Rev A chip.
Ballscrewbob:
And around here "a programmer is somebody who writes code"
Its a term that can be used for a large variety of things so lets not split hairs shall we.
Yes, but the OP was clearly writing about a piece of hardware that he was using.
So it is not splitting hairs. [sheesh]
I don't know why I started calling it a programmer. I can see that it is an adapter. I guess I never considered it, or the fact that a piece of wire was stealing my old job title. How 'bout I call it a facilitator? Either way I will buy a different one.
@OldSteve thank you for confirming everything that I also saw, but was too lazy to type out. It had me mystified, because at first, it also wouldnt work on my laptop windows 7 machine, and then I did something awesome and it started working. I wish I knew what I did.
TheRealVictor:
It had me mystified, because at first, it also wouldnt work on my laptop windows 7 machine, and then I did something awesome and it started working. I wish I knew what I did.
The 'HX' Rev A chip still supported Win7. The same fix won't work with Win8/Win10.
I'll eventually buy a new PIC programmer, but I don't use it much these days, so for now I'll use my WinXP machine for that.
I have a USB <-> RS232 with chip PL-2303XA / HXA.
That is declared EOL bu Prolific.
So an old driver would be possible.
See how I got it working on Windows 8.1 :
the link to the installer is:
