Digital Sandbox errors with (surprise, surprise) macOS Big Sur

Kits
1

I am using the Digital Sandbox in my lectures and will probably just have to use the online simulator. However, if there are any suggestions on how to fix my problem, I’m all ears!

I’m running macOS 11.1 (Big Sur). Arduino IDE 1.6.9 would install and the ArduBlock software worked for generating the Arduino code. However, it could not compile for the Digital Sandbox (learned this is an issue with macOS and that compiling works with IDE 1.8.13) However, now in 1.8.13, I can’t get the board to work. I installed it, but get errors regarding the platform.txt file containing deprecated cores. Is there a quick fix I can make to platform.txt for the Digital Sandbox?

Arduino: 1.8.13 (Mac OS X), Board: “Digital Sandbox”

Warning: platform.txt from core ‘SparkFun AVR Boards’ contains deprecated compiler.path={runtime.ide.path}/hardware/tools/avr/bin/, automatically converted to compiler.path={runtime.tools.avr-gcc.path}/bin/. Consider upgrading this core.

Warning: platform.txt from core ‘SparkFun AVR Boards’ contains deprecated tools.avrdude.cmd.path={runtime.ide.path}/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude, automatically converted to tools.avrdude.cmd.path={path}/bin/avrdude. Consider upgrading this core.

Warning: platform.txt from core ‘SparkFun AVR Boards’ contains deprecated tools.avrdude.config.path={runtime.ide.path}/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf, automatically converted to tools.avrdude.config.path={path}/etc/avrdude.conf. Consider upgrading this core.

fork/exec /Users/drackus/Library/Arduino15/packages/arduino/tools/avr-gcc/5.4.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino2/bin/avr-g++: bad CPU type in executable

Error compiling for board Digital Sandbox.

Board at /dev/cu.usbserial-AM00G3YE is not available

This report would have more information with

“Show verbose output during compilation”

option enabled in File → Preferences.

2

Unfortunately Ardublock isn’t compatible with Arduino versions higher than 1.6.10 if I recall.

You might need to roll back to 1.6.9 since that was what worked for you before.

3

Yes–I’ve learned that Ardublock isn’t compatible with anything higher than 1.6.10. However, 1.6.10 does not seem to be compatible with macOS 11.1. I either need a fix to make 1.6.9 compatible with macOS 11.1 or a way to get the board working with 1.8.13 (as per the error code in my original post). I’m OK with not using Ardublock if it means I can get my sketches to compile and upload properly.

4

You should be able to upload raw Arduino code right from the IDE in 1.8.13 without using Ardublock.

Ardublock was just a fancy graphical front end for Arduino and the IDE was doing all the uploading in the background. The ‘Blink’ example sketch should blink the D13 LED on the Digital Sandbox just the same way that it does on an Uno.

Big Sur did screw up a lot of drivers and you might need to remove your old FTDI driver and reinstall the latest version though.