Port Greyed Out 240928

Products & Technology XIAO
#1

Hello Seeed Studio Forum,

Using the Arduino IDE V 2.1.1 to program fairly simple LED blink sketch to the XIAO SAM D21.
Have two units. One, when connected to the laptop via a male USB A to male USB C cable, is immediately recognized by the IDE and displays in the right hand side of the lower status bar “Seeeduino XIAO on COM5” (Different ports COMx appear at different times.)

The other unit, when plugged into the cable and the Sketch > Upload chosen, compiles the sketch and then returns ’ Upload failure. Failed uploading, no port provided.’ Sure enough, the status bar says “Seeeduino XIAO not connected”
So the Tools menu option is chosen to access the Port option to choose the COM port.
But the Port option is greyed out.
Have tried restarting the Arduino IDE, restarting the computer.
At
Getting Started with Seeed Studio XIAO SAMD21 | Seeed Studio Wiki
there is a section that talks about
“Sometimes the Seeed Studio XIAO SAMD21 port may disappear when user programming process fails.
We can solve this problem by the following operation:”
The instructions ‘to short the RST pins in the diagram twice’ were followed carefully several times without any change.

The only explanation that comes to mind is that it is a defect unit. But it is brand new so, unless SEEED Studio is selling untested product, I am stumped.
The IDE is the same, the laptop is the same, the cable is the same, but the outcome is a fatal error with one unit and normal operation with the other.
What am I missing?

Thanks.

Allen Pitts
Dallas TX

#2

Hi there,
And welcome here,
So it is not unusual It’s an IDE issue , sort of well known for some BSP devices. Xiao is one,
You need to select device and comport each and EVERY time, in the case of corrupted upload or code the com port can get lost? Putting the XIAO in Bootloader mode overcomes this and is what the Wiki is describing. (the com port number will change ,FYI)

Typically once a successful upload is achieved, it will return to not needing the bootloader mode to be invoked to upload. It’s a quirk between Arduino IDE and the Adafruit bootloader (default for Xiao)
HTH
GL :slight_smile: PJ :v:

Pay attention to the BSP you are using for which demo, If an old demo it may only work with older BSP’s :+1:

#3

Hi alllenpitts,

See the Wiki section Enter Bootloader Mode
This operation is very difficult, so do not give up and try several times.

If it did not work, the following steps may be helpful.

  1. Is “Indication of something representing XIAO” listed under “Universal Serial Bus Devices” in the Device Manager?
    Note: not “Ports (COM & LPT)”.
  2. If not, this method does not work.
  3. If so, right click “Indication of something representing XIAO” and “Update Driver”
  4. select “Browse my computer for drivers”
  5. select “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer”
  6. select “USB Serial Device” and click “Next”

If you are lucky, it will be restored.
If this method is not available, the bootloader will may have been corrupted. See the link below.

1 Like