Connection issue?



  • A M5Stack Basic can not recognize with my mac.

    When USB cable connected with host,
    a M5Stack (Basic) was powered successfully
    however the host could not recognized it.

    • M5Stack
      • Power on -> OK
      • Opening sound demo -> OK
      • Display LCD pattern demo -> OK
      • A/B/C Buttons test successfully
    • Host (mac)
    • Serial device not found.
      no /dev/cu.SLAB_USB_toUART on my mac.

    On the other hand, another one (M5Stack Fire)
    connected successfully and recognized with the host.
    Therefore I think there was no issue on the host.

    • Host: macOS 10.14 (Mojave)
    • Driver: CP210x Macintosh OSX VCP Driver 5.0.8

    Are there are solution about my unrecognized M5Stack?



  • This is an issue with the CP210x driver and all us mac users have experienced it.
    How I got mine to work was a bit of a mystery but you need to delete the driver you just installed, power down the mac and leave a few seconds. Start up the mac and wait let it settle for a few minutes.
    DO NOT PLUG IN THE M5Stack YET!
    Install the driver in administrator mode and then shut down the mac again!
    Power up the mac and when finished loading open up the Arduino IDE.
    Throw away the little black usb lead that comes with the M5Stack and by a good quality USB C Data SYNC lead (phone charger leas do NOT work!)
    Plug the new lead into the M5Stack and then into the mac,
    wait a few minutes for OSX to mess around loading the driver.
    Go into arduino and check if the port has appeared in arduino.

    This driver is very frustrating and for a while I was using a USB to UART adapter to communicate with my M5Stack until i got it to work.



  • Thank you @ajb2k3

    I have tried reinstall the driver in administrator mode
    according to your instruction.
    And also I get new USB lead another maker.

    Unfortunately, in my case, the issue is not changed.
    My M5Basic was not worked (and M5Fire was worked well).

    I will try a little more.



  • @ryumei said in Connection issue?:

    Thank you @ajb2k3

    I have tried reinstall the driver in administrator mode
    according to your instruction.
    And also I get new USB lead another maker.

    Unfortunately, in my case, the issue is not changed.
    My M5Basic was not worked (and M5Fire was worked well).

    I will try a little more.

    Don't give up, this drove me crazy for 4 weeks and I ended up getting this lead
    https://amzn.to/2XXxa6J
    Before it worked.
    I tried 4 new leads spending around GBP£30 on leads in the end as it turns out that not all leads are true usb C data compatable.



  • Hi, @ajb2k3

    Finally, I could successfully wrote sample code to my M5Basic.
    Thank you for your kindly suggestion.

    I tried insertion of USB lead to my M5Basic several times.
    A device file /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART was appeared on my host.
    This my prepared lead get connection once to several times.

    And then, I have got new lead you suggested.
    This new lead achieve connection completely.
    (Amazon Japan URL is https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B01GO3XLM0)

    Next step is writing code to my M5Basic.
    Once recognized the M5Basic on my mac,
    I have tried to write a sample ‘hello world’ program via Arduino IDE.
    However, I got error message during writing phase.
    And the device /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART was missing after the error.
    (The device file recovered after reconnection of USB lead.)

    The error message is:

    esptool.py v2.6-beta1
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    Serial port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART
      File "esptool.py", line 2865, in <module>
      File "esptool.py", line 2858, in _main
      File "esptool.py", line 2565, in main
      File "esptool.py", line 213, in __init__
      File "serial/__init__.py", line 88, in serial_for_url
      File "serial/serialposix.py", line 268, in open
    serial.serialutil.SerialException: [Errno 2] could not open port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART'
    Failed to execute script esptool
    スケッチの書き込み中にエラーが発生しました
    

    (Last Japanese message means ‘An error found during to write sketch.’)

    I connect a capacitor between GND and RST of my M5Stack.
    Finally, writing and executing the program successfully!!

    I summarized my case for reference:

    • Install driver in admin mode.
    • Use reliable lead.
    • Try to connect a capacitor between GND and RST when failed writing programs.


  • @ryumei I am so sorry, I completely forgot about the capacitor trick as its hit and miss if it works.
    Glad it works for you now. (I have the capacitor sat in the box with it.)