I have a handful of Arduino Pro Mini boards I’m programming. I’m using the FTDI Basic Breakout to program them, but I’m having an odd issue that I’m not sure how to debug.
From my computer starting up (MacBook Pro, Mojave 10.14.5) the FTDI will be recognized under the “Port” in the Arduino IDE and I can program as normal. If I then switch to one of the other Pro Mini boards, it won’t be recognized. Switching which USB port I’m using allows it to be seen once more but the behavior also repeats on this new USB port, but switching back does not. Restarting the computer seems to be the only way to get the port back recognized.
Any thoughts on what might be happening? I need to go back and forth between Pro Mini’s quite a lot, and restarting between each is just not going to be feasible.
Have you tried [updating the FTDI driver? I know that the drivers that come installed on Macs aren’t the same as the ones that FTDI provides for free ( not sure why Apple insists on using their own driver, that doesn’t work). Usually, if you are using the pre-installed driver the FTDI chip only gets recognized once like what you are experiencing.](How to Install FTDI Drivers - SparkFun Learn)
Hello DrRocksalt.
It sounds like you’re using the Apple driver and the Apple driver has a bug where the DTR line gets stuck on preventing you from uploading more than once.
Unplugging and replugging the board every time you upload code is a quick workaround, but the real fix is to install the most up to date FTDI drivers from the FTDI website. The FTDI provided drivers fix the DTR issue so you don’t have to keep unplugging the board. You can find that driver at the link below.
https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
Okay, I updated the driver and all seemed to be okay. I could switch boards at will. Once I actually re-programmed one, however, the behavior returned. Program Board A, switch to Board B, and the port is gone. Going back to Board A, the port is still gone.
Edit: Just to clarify, it takes an entire computer reboot to get it to come back, not just unplugging and replugging in the board.
Sadly we don’t have a solution for you on this. It may take some time for FTDI to update their drivers for the latest version of OS X. Apple has a bad habit of breaking drivers whenever they do an update.
If you have access to a PC, you shouldn’t have any driver issues though.
I noticed that it wasn’t just the FTDI programmer that failed to show up; it was that USB port entirely that refused to talk to anything. With this info, I changed up my googling approach and wound up with uninstalling the third-party drivers, using the method described here: https://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Docume … AC_OSX.pdf
After a reboot, things seem happier. So far…