Makeblock Orion or mBot on OSX El Capitan

#1

Just like Yosemite, El Capitan requires kext driver signing. How this can be disabled in OSX 10.11 is changed however. - See more at: https://www.kiwi-electronics.eu/blog?journal_blog_post_id=7#sthash.VKyAY1nx.dpuf

To get the CH340 drivers to work in El Capitan you need to use the new tool csrutil as follows:

  • Reboot and press CMD+R immediately after hearing the startup sound to boot to Recovery Mode
  • Open Terminal
  • Execute the following command: csrutil enable --without kext
  • Reboot

See more at: https://www.kiwi-electronics.eu/blog?journal_blog_post_id=7#sthash.VKyAY1nx.dpuf

#2

Again, a word of warning about this: This command will disable all kext signing on your Mac potentially leaving you vulnerable to drivers containing malware, etc. Use with caution. One way around it is to use virtualization software to either install and use Windows or a second copy of El Cap. (And there is always Bootcamp.)

#3

Actually, if you want to get the signed drivers, you can just purchase a signed CH340/CH341 serial port driver from https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/. I have done this on OS X El capitan and it works great.

#4

Is it that hard to have the driver signed?
The kext was disabled in Yosemite and El Capitan because it’s been used in attacks against OSX. The workaround disables verification system wide.

#5

Thanks, I got the drivers from mac-usb-serial and I see the serial port on mBlock. However, when I click to connect, nothing happens and the serial does not show as connected. Did you have any problems like this?

I am able to connect using the same CH341 tty port to my other arduino boards from the Arduino IDE. They also use the CH341 chipset. I updated mBlock to 2.2.1 but I still can’t connect. /var/log/system does not show any interesting messages.

#6

Thanks tserreyn! After putting together mDrawBot and struggling with OS X, I bought signed drivers from mac-usb-serial and Orion board works perfectly.

#7

I executed csrutil enable --without kext on my system. Now I bought a signed CH340/CH341 serial port driver.

How can I switch back to my old system without having csrutil enabled?

Thanks

Christian

#8

I have followed the advice given on this thread. Thanks much for trying to help guys.

I bought this mBot for my grandson - I was hoping to get them excited about computers and programming. I myself have been in the computer industry - I headed the Technical Support Group Northern Europe for Intel. So I’m pretty computer literate.
I started using my mac - driver disaster including purchased beta serial driver. Several full computer crashes. So I moved to an old Windows machine I have around. Same sort of problems - conflict on Com ports. Sadly I must now say that the mBot product is a technical disaster - its installation and poor documentation take it beyond the skills of the ordinary family… “One Robot Per Kid” is a joke. This is so sad - the concept is fantastic, the use of Scratch inspired.
Unfortunately my grandson was a witness to my struggles. The poor kid must have totally put off - given up on any curosity about robots, computers, electronics seeing the difficulties even his “expert” granddad had.

#9

There is now a new USB driver that does not requiring booting into recovery mode and disabling system integrity protection. It’s in one of the repos as CH34x_Install.zip.

#10