SAMD21: ongoing support for new code development?

Wireless & IoT LoRa (Long Range)
1

I’ll try again with a new title. See prior post for details of what I’ve tried so far.

I’m unable to upload compiled code for the SAMD21 from Mac OSX or Debian Buster or Bullseye. This seems to be a problem with the second USB serial port not instantiating, but I can’t see how to create it. It appears that some software needed for current OS and Arduino IDE versions has not been ported to the new systems, but that’s just a guess.

If you’re able to upload code, what system are you using for development?

2

Try wiping the Arduino folders https://support.arduino.cc/hc/en-us/art … rduino-IDE and try again with a fresh install of the IDE? This works ~half the time

3

Well, not this half. :smiley::cry:

Thanks for the suggestion … I should have thought of doing a complete, fresh install when I first couldn’t see the SAMD. But, following your suggestion, and working on my Mac Mini running Catalina, I completely removed the Arduino.app directory from /Applications and removed the ~/Library/Arduino15 directory, then reinstalled Arduino (1.8.19), the Arduino SAMD board library (1.8.13) and the Sparkfun SAMD boards (1.8.3). I can select the Sparkfun SAMD21 Pro RF board and compile, but there is no port named " /dev/cu.usbmodem####". Again, the error message is “Couldn’t find a Board on the selected port. Check that you have the correct port selected.”

During the install of the Sparkfun SAMD boards, I again got the error messages:

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc version=1.22.0-80-g6c4433a-5.2.0 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=esptool_py version=2.6.1 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=mkspiffs version=0.2.3 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc version=1.22.0-80-g6c4433a-5.2.0 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=esptool_py version=2.6.1 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=mkspiffs version=0.2.3 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc version=1.22.0-80-g6c4433a-5.2.0 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=esptool_py version=2.6.1 packager=esp32

Index error: could not find referenced tool name=mkspiffs version=0.2.3 packager=esp32

So it looks like there’s something missing in the packaging of the Sparkfun SAMD Boards, at least for the Mac.

I got the same messages for Raspbian when I was trying this earlier on previously-installed versions of Raspbian with Arduino already installed. But when I get a little spare time, I’ll go back and do a fresh install of 32-bit Raspbian, Arduino, and SAMD boards and try that one again.

4

Still no joy: I continue to be unable to upload code to my SAMD21 RF’s, though the Arduino IDE’s do compile it. If you’ve been able to program your SAMD21 from either a Raspberry Pi or from a Mac, please reply with the version numbers of the OS, Arduino IDE, Arduino AVR boards, Arduno SAMD boards, and Sparkfun SAMD boards – perhaps I can build a system that works.

I did a fresh install of RaspiOS Buster 32 bit and installed several different versions of the Arduino IDE and boards, but none worked.

I found an old disk on which I had previously done SAMD21 development work, and from that I found that my last working versions were: IDE 1.8.10, Arduino AVR 1.8.2, Arduino SAMD 1.6.12, and Sparkfun SAMD 1.7.4. I tried those IDE and board versions, current versions, and several intermediate versions, cleaning up all the detritus in both the install and my own directory between new installs, but none worked. But I’m not sure what RaspiOS version I was running – may have been Stretch, but only Buster and Bullseye are available now.

The primary issue seems to be that the IDE doesn’t see /dev/ttyAMA0 (though it does see ttyACM0). So the necessary tty devices are not created by the IDE, and I can’t tell what’s supposed to do that job.

On the Mac (Catalina), running IDE 1.8.19, it doesn’t see any tty device (just bluetooth) with the Sparkfun SAMD (though it does see and upload to an Arduino Uno if I plug one in). I’ve also installed IDE 2.0.0-rc6, and it doesn’t see the USB tty ports, either.

Does anyone have a suggestion about where to look or what might get me going again?

5

hdtodd:
I’ll try again with a new title. See prior post for details of what I’ve tried so far.

I’m unable to upload compiled code for the SAMD21 from Mac OSX or Debian Buster or Bullseye. This seems to be a problem with the second USB serial port not instantiating, but I can’t see how to create it. It appears that some software needed for current OS and Arduino IDE versions has not been ported to the new systems, but that’s just a guess.

If you’re able to upload code, what system are you using for development?

I suspended work on this project in March and haven’t tried to connect to the SAMD21 since then. But tonight I started the Arduino IDE and found that there was an update for it. I installed the update on OSX (itself not updated; still running 10.15.7), connected the USB to the SAM21, and compiled and downloaded code.

So as of tonight, this issue seems to have been resolved with Arduino IDE version 2.0.0-rc9, dated 2022.07.20T13:46:43