Thing Plus, ESP32-C6 COM port failure

Development Boards ESP32
1

Thing Plus ESP32-C6. Can someone please tell me what chip is used for USB to UART? I believe it is a CP2102. Silicon Labs says that the manufacturer of the device may have customized it and therefore I must seek help from SparkFun.

PROBLEM
Windows 11 COM3 properties says “This device cannot start (Code 10)”.

The USB to UART bridge does not work on my new Windows 11 Pro system (all new hardware, not an OS upgrade). Yesterday it worked fine on my Windows 10 system - and I never even had to install drivers for it.

Following advice from the internet I have tried the latest drivers (11.4.0.393), drivers from a few years ago (6.7.6.2130) and even drivers for Windows XP/Vista (6.7.0.0). All of these load with “This device cannot start (Code 10)”. I have also tried plugging my device into a USB 2.0 hub (recommended in Espressif forums).

I’m baffled by this. It doesn’t seem like it should be a SparkFun problem, but Silicon Labs says not theirs. Should I be looking to the mobo chipset for answers? My old Windows 10 system was ASRock with Intel i5. New Windows 11 is MSI B650 with AMD Ryzen 5.

If I can’t get this to work, my ESP32 projects grind to a halt!

2

There isn’t a USB to serial chip on that board, the ESP32-c6 connects directly to the USB port.
Try a different know good cable. If you get the same message, it might be a bad board.

3

Here are the schematic and hook up guide. Along with yellowdog’s suggestion these may help you to troubleshoot the device.

4

The device is good. I simply unplugged it from the Win 10 computer and plugged it into the new Win 11 computer. Same USB cable too. And the last app loaded to it continues to run successfully.

I guess I misunderstood the HW that performs the USB to UART function. I have pored over the SparkFun documentation and never found a clue to the USB to UART HW. So can someone please tell me where to find a proper driver for the COM port on Windows 11?

5

Check out Establish Serial Connection with ESP32-C6 - ESP32-C6 - — ESP-IDF Programming Guide v5.4 documentation for more info…bt essentially you shouldn’t need one

If if starts giving guff unplug/replug it :slight_smile: