Cant see Pico in Mac OSX

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2015-04-25 by tony1tf

Just received my Pico. Cant see the serial device in terminal or the web app. Pressing reset button and re-inserting shows red and green leds for boot loader mode, so Pico OK. Mac OSX is 10.6.8 - snow leopard.
Any thoughts as to how to get the Pico to shows as a serial device?
Tony

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2015-04-26 by @allObjects

Did you install and start the Espruino Web IDE in Chrome?

In the IDE in top left corner, you see a yellow/kaki Connect icon. Clicking/tapping it shows you the list of USB ports, from which you pick the one that obviously got successfully installed.

The Connect icon will turn green, and in the console, Espruino will print a banner including the installed firmware.

Espruino is now at you service!

PS: This button press on or briefly after plugging in/powering on is only for reset or flash. You do not need that to just get Espruino connected and talking to the IDE.

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by tony1tf

Hi Espruino

Yes, I did, and as I said in my post, I could not see the device - it is not listed in either /dev or the list of serial devices which appears in the Espruino Web IDE. I read your troubleshooting guide and tried pressing the reset button when inserting the device just to prove it was working OK. Without pressing the reset button, I see a short flash of the red led, which I believe is correct, but as I said - no new serial device appears on the Mac. My next step will be to try it on a Raspberry Pi.
Tony

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by @allObjects

Interesting... (I'm sorry for not having gotten it)

(C0rrected: stated earlier: Even without Espruino connected, I get the following list... and that is incorrect... only when OS X detects Espruino, it creates the device).

I'm using OS X 10.9.5 on MacBook Pro - I hope it is not the 10.9.5 which makes the difference... (I cannot remember when I moved on from Snow Leopard...).

allO:dev allO$ ls -l | grep usb
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      33,  27 Apr 25 23:11 cu.usbmodem411
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel      33,  26 Apr 26 00:29 tty.usbmodem411
allO:dev allO$ 

---

Attachments:

• USBModem_Serial.png

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by @allObjects

@tony1tf, I'm sure you have checked this conversation about Mac Web IDE problems. So it is the OS X version that messes with you... (according to my post there, I had already moved on... and it is about the time when I started to do Espruino 7/2014).

I know that there are other ways to talk to (standard) Espruino (board) than USB... don't know about Pico.

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by @gfwilliams

Are you getting red and green pulsing, or just on full? If it's on full then it's actually not connecting and maybe you could try using an extension lead in case there is some issue when plugging it directly into your usb port?

If they are pulsing, please could you open a terminal and type ls -l /dev | grep usb

It might help to narrow down if this is a hardware issue or something to do with the web ide.

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by AntiCat

I would like to suggest a different approach.
/dev/* requires drivers I assume they are missing.

Does the Espruino show up in the system report?
The system report can be accessed trough the "About this Mac" menuitem.

---

Attachments:

• Bildschirmfoto 2015-04-26 um 16.32.24.png

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by @allObjects

The system report just reads what the underlaying unix shows in the 'file' system (/dev). And it looks like @tony1tf's OS X version is not picking up the plugging in and does not connect on the hardware level and create this device entry. May be the sensing of the plugging in on an electro mechanical / electronic signal level does not make it. @gfwilliams, what is the USB compatibility? 1, 2, 3, 3 fast,...? Using a USB A/Male-A /Femal Extension Cable to connect Pico with the Mac would be my last resort worth a shot.

---

Posted at 2015-04-26 by tony1tf

Hi allObjects
I liked your idea of it possible being a mechanical problem, so I tried a short USB extension cable.
But no luck - same lack of device - here's the o/p from 'ls /dev/tty.*' with and without the Pico its the same:
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-Modem /dev/tty.Nokia2330c-2-NokiaPCSui
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync /dev/tty.Nokia6500c-COM1

Then I tried AntiCat's idea of the "About this Mac" USB report - and here it is - attached file, with the STM32 device only showing when the Pico is plugged in.
So the mystery deepens - its there but no serial device.
Tony

---

Attachments:

• screen.png

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @allObjects

Really really misterious.

So it is in OSX/Mac Hardware, but it does not make it into the underlaying (appleized BSD) Unix... indeed misterious.

Did you have luck with RasPi?

May be getting an Ubuntu in VirtualBox on your machine could tickle it?

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @gfwilliams

Can you open Console, click All Messages, then plug the device in?

I bet you'll see AppleUSBCDCACMControl: start - Failed to find the CDC driver

I just tried it on my wife's 10.6.8 Mac. Now this is especially frustrating because it used to work. The Mac was one of the devices I tested the original Espruino boards on, but presumably Apple have sent a sw update that's somehow removed the CDC driver!

If you Google that error you'll find loads of complaints, for TI boards, certain Arduino boards, and even one for the very similar Micro Python board.

I'm not honestly sure what to suggest right now - I'm just updating her Mac again to see if that fixes it. Otherwise as @allObjects says, you could try running something like Ubuntu in a VM to see if yo uhave any luck there.

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by tony1tf

Hi Gordon

Here are a few lines o/p from console after plugging in Pico - seems you are correct - well spotted:

27/04/2015 10:22:45 kernel 0 0 dgmdmcontrol: start - Failed to find the CDC driver
27/04/2015 10:22:45 kernel 0 0 AppleUSBCDCACMControl: start - Failed to find the CDC driver
27/04/2015 10:22:46 kernel 0 1 AppleUSBCDCACMData: start - Find CDC driver for data interface failed

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @gfwilliams

Well, just updated and same problem. Not sure what to suggest - there's a post on mbed from someone having similar problems, showing how to set up VirtualBox with Windows (and forward the USB devices).

Out of interest, do you have some antivirus stuff like Sophos installed? I'm stabbing in the dark here, but that's about the only thing that we've done to Marianne's Mac recently that could have caused problems apart from a software update.

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by tony1tf

Hi Gordon

Thanks for taking the time to help out.
Yes - I saw the posts on mbed - I have used mbed a lot in the past and not had that problem, but havnt checked recently. Just tried a Freescale FRDM KL25Z board and that is working as mass storage OK.
I see on stackoverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5009593/acessing-a-serial-to-usb-device-with-i-o-kit

that there is a solution which requires recompiling the Mac USB driver - probably a bit beyond my abilities.
I will try the virtual box, or Parallels solutions, although I really would like to use this in native mode.
Tony

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @gfwilliams

tried a Freescale FRDM KL25Z board and that is working as mass storage OK

Yes, but I think they also have a comms port (at least the ST mbed devices too) that probably wouldn't have been appearing.

I've been doing a bit of poking around - I even tried making a .kext file for Espruino, but I get the same Failed to find the CDC driver error.

It's probably a bit much, but have you considered just upgrading to Yosemite? I think it's a free update now.

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by tony1tf

Hi Gordon

Neither of the usb ports on the KL25 produced an error on the console log, although only one showed as mass storage.
Thanks for the suggestion about upgrading. In general, I hate doing upgrades just to cater for one device - I have often said that the beauty of the Mac is the long term stability, compared with windows. However, since there seems to be a generic problem, here, I will probably have a go.

cheers
Tony

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @allObjects

Catching up on the posts I assume you are already beyond the 'mkdev' / 'mknod' option - and I'm not sure if this still exists or ever existed in Apple's OS X Unix. I recall making devs for disks / partititions and (serial) terminals (ttys)... System V... ;-)

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by @gfwilliams

@allObjects you could maybe make a device, but I think this is actually Apple's CDC driver failing to work with totally standard USB CDC devices.

It affects pretty much every USB serial port that doesn't use something like FTDI (that have their own drivers). I don't know how true it is, but this website says:

The affected GPS loggers use a standard USB protocol (USB-CDC-ACM), that is designed for classical modems and cellular modems. The marketing devision of Apple has decided that the driver should only work with real communication devices. Therefore the driver is no longer loaded when a GPS device is connected.

Again, not sure how true, but it sure sounds like Apple :(

---

Posted at 2015-04-27 by tony1tf

I have tried running in Linux - Ubuntu in the Mac Parallels virtual machine environment. I could see the Pico at /dev/ttyACM0, so loaded minicom and was able to type commands to ttyACM0 and light up LED1. So all is working OK on the board. Thanks for the help. If I find a solution to the native Mac OSX problem, I will let you know.

---

Posted at 2015-07-20 by Ollie

Similar issue. Just got to playing with my Pico and cannot see it in Terminal using:-

ls /dev/tty.*

Mac 10.6.8 here too. Device appears to be recognised when plugged in and is listed in the System Report.

To check I wasn't making an error I connected my Espruino board, and the device was detected fine using the same command.

Edit: Was able to get Bootloader mode, so device is there.

---

Posted at 2015-07-20 by @gfwilliams

Was able to get Bootloader mode, so device is there.

It actually appeared in /dev/tty when in bootloader mode? Could you actually flash it with the Web IDE?

I remember you've posted on here a few times before, so have you had an Espruino board of some kind working on that computer previously?

Or any luck with Arduino boards (the ones with an Atmel interface chip, not the FTDI ones).

---

Posted at 2015-07-20 by Ollie

Sorry I wasn't clear, I added the edit to clarify I wasn't suggesting the Pico was faulty since I can get it into bootloader mode - but I can't see it in terminal regardless of mode. The board I plugged in and could see (to make sure it wasn't me) was my other Espruino - the standard sized board not the Pico.

Good memory - previously I was struggling with the Chrome IDE on 10.6.8 (on my other Espruino) but could always use with the screen command.

---

Posted at 2015-07-20 by @gfwilliams

Oh, now that's very interesting. The two boards should appear as exactly the same type of USB device, so I'm very surprised one would work when the other doesn't.

Actually when you get it into bootloader mode, do the LEDs alternate between red and green, or are they on constantly?

---

Posted at 2015-07-20 by Ollie

They alternate as expected.

Re the two boards, that's partly why I posted as it did read above as you'd inferred the Mac updates might have removed support for the original board - but I can see that one fine.

---

Posted at 2015-07-21 by @gfwilliams

Thanks, that's hugely helpful - I just tried here with the old board and I get the same (not sure why I didn't see that when I checked before!).

... and that's given me what I needed to work with. I've just fixed it - it was one single bit in the USB descriptor that was different :) binaries with it fixed will be available here in 60 mins

However - the bad news is that the USB bootloader doesn't work on 10.6.8 either. You can just plug into another computer and update the firmware with the Web IDE on that (and it'll work), but then every time you want to update you'll have to do it on another computer :(

To fix it, you'll have to update all the firmware using DFU. You can follow the instructions under Advanced Flashing on this page, which should also work on your Mac.

I'll update the docs later this week, but the command you need for dfu-util is: sudo dfu-util -a 0 -s 0x08000000 -D espruino_binary_file.bin

I'll try and make sure that this is on the rev 1v4 boards when they get made though.

---

Posted at 2015-07-21 by Ollie

That's fantastic news - and the speed at which you address stuff is amazing - cheers!

---

Posted at 2015-07-21 by @gfwilliams

Thanks! No problem...

To be fair the original post was 3 months ago - hopefully @tony1tf hasn't given up with it yet!

---

Posted at 2015-09-22 by Ollie

Just an update. dfu-util did not work for me.

This was the output:

dfu-util: Invalid DFU suffix signature
dfu-util: A valid DFU suffix will be required in a future dfu-util release!!!
dfu-util: No DFU capable USB device available

I found another computer and got 1.80 on it via the IDE and I can now see the Pico on the 10.6.8 machine with:-
ls /dev/tty.*

---

Posted at 2015-09-22 by @gfwilliams

Did you also follow the advanced flash instructions from that page I linked? You have to pencil over some pads on the back of the board then hold down the button while plugging it in.

It's great that 1v80 works, but you'll find that as-is you may have to always plug into another computer in order to update the firmware.

---

Posted at 2015-09-22 by Ollie

I did, I followed all the instructions there. I pencil shorted the button connection, and assume it was was good enough but perhaps it wasn't. Anyway not a problem. I'm up and running with the Pico. Next time I want to update I'll try dfu-util again and try the other approach via the battery.

---

Posted at 2015-11-07 by user58752

Hello,

I've just received my Pico. As above, the tty drivers do not show up on my OSX 10.11.1 machine. However on a OSX 10.10.x machine it works.

So I tried the flashing instructions and upgraded to V1.81 on the OSX 10.10 machine. Seems to work fine. When I connect on this machine, it show the correct (new) v1.81 version firmware.

However, when coming back to the 10.11 machine I still get the errors:

07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: NMUSBCDCACMData::start: InterfaceMappings dictionary not found for this device. Assume CDC Device...
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: NMUSBCDCACMData::start: do not search for USBCDC Device...
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: NMUSBCDCACMData::findCDCDriverAD: found CDCClassname NMUSBCDC
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: 0        1 NMUSBCDCACMData: start - Find CDC driver failed, return false
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: NMUSBCDCACMData::start: do not search for USBCDC Device...
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: NMUSBCDCACMData::findCDCDriverAD: found CDCClassname NMUSBCDC
07/11/15 12:09:35,000 kernel[0]: 0        1 NMUSBCDCACMData: start - Find CDC driver failed, return false

(also too bad I got a v1.3 board, when apparently the v1.4 is the latest version)

---

Posted at 2015-11-07 by @gfwilliams

Hi - there's not much difference in the board revisions - the 1v4 is made in China and has a fuse on-board, but otherwise they're basically the same.

So you're having trouble with a newer MacOS? The problems people were having previously were with 10.6.8.

This is the first I've heard of that being an issue though - I ran a workshop a week ago where virtually everyone had brand new Macs, and it worked fine on all of them.