LilyPad Arduino USB - ATmega32U4 Board won't stay connected to serial port

My LilyPad Arduino USB - ATmega32U4 Board (V10) won’t stay connected to the serial port. The only way I can get it to show up as an option for the serial port selection is to quickly double click on the button between A3 and A4. About one out of ten times it will then show up as /dev/cu.usbmodem14101 (LilyPad Arduino USB), but it just barely stays connected long enough to quickly snap a picture. Does anyone have any advice on how to keep it connected?

If it helps, my arduino nano and UNO are working without any issues. My Lilypad was working fine about six months ago at the winter holiday, but I stored it away until now when I had time to use it again. Also, I noticed that when it connects there is a solid red light next to the chip in the middle of board and when the red light turns off it isn’t connected anymore. There is always a flashing red light next to 10.

thank you kindly for any help or advice

Hi WilsonRL,

It sounds like you may have uploaded to the LilyPad USB with the wrong board definitions selected. This will “brick” the board but you can recover it. You are on the right track with the double-tap of the RESET button. [This section of our Hookup Guide for the similar Pro Micro goes over the recovery process in detail. The only difference with your board is there is a RESET button so you do not need to jump the RST and GND pins. Just make sure to have everything set up prior to pressing the reset button since the board only stays in bootloader mode for 8 seconds. It may take a few tries to get the timing right but this should recover the board back to full functionality.

Let us know if you continue to have issues or have any other questions and we would be happy to help.](Pro Micro & Fio V3 Hookup Guide - SparkFun Learn)

Thank you so much! This worked on the second try. The trick was to start uploading before double clicking the reset button so it had time to compile and upload during the 8 seconds.

Thank you again :o)