No USB connection

#1

I’m having real problems connecting to my new Mbot via USB. I’ve downloaded and installed the drivers (CH34xInstall.pkg) and as I’m on OSX Mavericks I’m guessing there shouldn’t be any issues.
Annoyingly the serial port did pop up for a short while in the pull down menu which allowed me to try a couple of short pieces of test code, however it has since disappeared following the installation of a more recent Mblock version. This means I’m now unable to revert to the factory default (& subsequently I have a rather annoyed 8 year old daughter.)
Any ideas? Incidentally the serial port doesn’t pop up in the Arduino IDE either.

#2

if you upgraded to El Capitan then you need a new signed driver. There are other forum posts on that topic.

#3

For Mavericks there is a hack to the NVRAM that you’ll need to do. The link is in another post on the forum. The signed driver for El Capitan is being held up by Apple. Apparently there is a change to how the USB stack works. The driver author is working with Apple to remedy now. Not sure when it will be available.

#4

any clues to the post? - I’ve tried NVRAM and Mavericks with Mbot but no joy
thanks

#5

This is the post that worked for me.

(You’ll need to read through the whole message to get to the NVRAM hack)

You can buy a signed serial driver from https://www.mac-usb-serial.com. It’s relatively inexpensive and is the only signed driver I’ve found since the manufacturer (not Makeblock) doesn’t provide signed drivers. The signed driver from mac-usb-serial lets me work with my FTDI Arduinos on El Capitan, but the mBot uses the WCU341 serial chipset so I’m still waiting on that to be resolved. The signed drivers should work fine with Mavericks.

Regards,

Chuck

#6

Hi danjer,
I’m on Mavericks not El Capitan. Do the recommended drivers work with Mavericks? I would have thought so.

#7

I am using Yosemite so I can’t vouch for Mavericks but as @chuckmcknight mentions it should work.
Show us a screen grab of the ‘connection’ menu after you have the mBot connected via USB and turned on.
You have to wait a second before pulling up the menu item after you power on the mBot.

#8

here it is. Remember that the mbot did connect, it was only after I installed the mblock update that it stopped appearing in the menu.
thanks,
Nic

#9

Same problem here… I’ve tried all the driver re-installation & terminal workarounds suggested. Looks like a return.

#10

I’ve just re-read danjger’s last post and feel like a complete idiot. When reprogramming Arduino’s you don’t need to power it as the USB lead supplies 5v. I assumed that was true for programming the Mbot but obviously not.
Thanks for all the help.
Nic

#11

The USB does supply power but you still have to turn the switch on. You don’t need the external power supply for programming but if you want to drive motors you probably want both.
Glad you got it working, Right?

#12

yes that makes sense now.
thanks,
Nic

#13

Hi Nic,

If you have a rechargeable battery, the USB will charge that but as danjger noted, you have to have the mBot turned on to power it up.

Glad to hear your problem is resolved though! :smile:

Chuck

#14