Can I use TinyCLR and VS 2017 with

SAM-BA is not the best user friendly software but the good news is you only need it once. If SAM-BA was not installed successfully and you do not see a COM port showing up when you put G400 in SAMBA mode then you can go to the next step.

Make sure you have connected SPI1_MISO low during reset to force G400 in SAM-BA mode.

So the first question is, what does device manager show when you plug in G400?

And are you planning on using NETMF or TinyCLR?

Thank you Gus, let me do as you suggest.

When I connect power to the Raptor - the red LED comes on and I can see (it has an attached LCD display) it begins to run the old app I wrote (that tries to connect to my wifi network). This appears to be crashing/restarting.

In device mgr under Ports I see “Standard serial over Bluetooth link (COM68)” and under USB I see nothing but do see intermittently an error node in the tree view (which appears briefly and transiently) about an unrecognized device or something.

The little appears to be running now too and has connected to my network and displays some details (this was all written with the old .Net MF stuff about 18 months ago or more)

It seems the latest SAMBA (3.2.1) installs and behaves quite differently to 2.18, so Im pressing ahed with installing this, it displays a setup secreen and everything whereas 3.2.1 is very differnet

Incredibly perplexing. I got my device manager to show me an error icon for G400 (under other devices). I right click and select update driver. However I have no idea where to look. When I downloaded SAMBA 2.18 it just downloaded an exe and I ran that.

But now I have no idea where to direct it to get the driver it is asking.

I can see a folder here

F:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\sam-ba_2.18\drv

But when I direct it there it juts says “Windows could not find any drivers for your device” however there is a file in there named: atm6124_cdc.inf which is a driver info file…if I right click the file and select install, then it asks for permission to update, I say OK and then that window closes and nothing else happens.

I also see nothing relevant in the window event log.

Incidentally this is Windows 10 Pro 10.0.17134 build 17134 on a powerful machine (i7 3960X with 64GB).

Windows should install the drivers automatically.

The schematic shows where the SPI pins are. http://files.ghielectronics.com/downloads/Schematics/FEZ/FEZ%20Raptor%20Schematic.pdf

How did you put your board in samba mode?

Hi Gus - actually I did not put it in samba mode! Let me review that bit and retry…

Apologies but this is incredibly confusing - I cannot find out how to put the Raptor (a G400 S) into “samba mode” I simply cannot tell if the three built in buttons can do this or if I must ground some pin…

@Bauland - Hi, unfortunately the URL is no longer valid:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/hardware/legacy/gadgeteer/fez-raptor.html

I found this article that says to hold LDR0 and LDR1 down when applying power. Well I did that and the device clearly goes into some mode (it no longer runs the old app that’s on there) but in device mgr I see the same thing, a warning/error node under Other Devices.

OK I uninstalled SAMBA thern reinstalled. Then I navigate the samba folde rin Program Files 86.

In there I ran samba.exe and selected COM port 68 (the only option in the dropdown) then selected at91sam9x35-ek and pressed “connect”, here’s what I get:

samba_invalid_chip

Prior to pressing “connect” I powered the board while holding LDR0 and LDR1 down. In the earlier image of device mgr though I can see com port 68 is described as a bluetooth link, is there something wrong at this level? com ports?

Now it is : FEZ Raptor

Your post from June 2018. The procedure is still the same.
Regards
Roschmi

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@RoSchmi - Well the “procedure” seems to be scattered across numerous pages and its easy to misunderstand especially as stuff gets out of date and URLs don’t always work.

I cannot get SAMBA to behaves as described and I’ve posted details here of what I’m encountering.

After following a succession of pages I get told to go here:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/software/tinyclr/loaders/sam-ba-bootloader.html

and I’ve tried this but get th probloems I described above.

This page:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/hardware/gadgeteer/fez-raptor.html

directs me to this page:

“Loading GHI Bootloader v2
Follow the exact same steps found on the G400 page.”

Which takes me here:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/hardware/scm/g400s.html

That page then tells me to go here:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/software/tinyclr/loaders/intro.html#sam-ba-bootloader

And towards the bottom of that page I get directed to here:

http://docs.ghielectronics.com/software/tinyclr/loaders/sam-ba-bootloader.html

On that page I again get directed to go here to get SAMBA:

https://www.microchip.com/developmenttools/ProductDetails/atmel%20sam-ba%20in-system%20programmer

Which is exactly what I did (and I grabbed v 2.18) but that eventually fails because I get this:

samba_invalid_chip

Please tell me if I missed a step or did something I shouldn’t have.

OK I’ve made a “breakthrough”.

Some pages say to hold LDR0 down and reset the board then others say to short (in this case) pins 8 & 10.

So I powered the board, then shorted 8-10 and reset then (with pins still shorted) ran Samba v2.18. That resulted in this:

I shorted these pins with a small nail (yep, I don’t have anything better just now) but can I unshort themonce that app page come sup or must they remain shorted while I do the other steps?

Just to add to my confusion look at the title bar of that window -> at91sam9x35-ek then look just below the menu bar -> at91sam9g15-ek - this no doubt means something but the fact that they are different does confuse me.

I followed the instruction to install the v2 bootloader. However those instructions don’t tell me how to recognize when the upload of the bootloader has finished, it appeared to have finished in that it was responsive and had written a few messages during that step.

Now when I run TinyCLR config it is unable to connect to the device - how can I be sure that the bootloader uload phase did complete succesfully?

Well I repeated the install of the v2 bootloader and it really did seem to act as if it had completed fine. But again when I run TinyCLR Config it cannot connect:

and just FYI this is what device manager looks like now

I think you forgot to load the firmware, either with teraterm or TinyCLR Config (press LDR0 when powering up)
http://docs.ghielectronics.com/software/tinyclr/loaders/ghi-bootloader.html#loading-the-firmware

@RoSchmi - OK I retried TinyCLR Config and this time used Loader mode (earlier I had left it in Debug mode) and I was able to upload the TinyCLR (which I assume is what is meant by firmware here).

Now when I power the Raptor both the red and blue LEDs light up. But I no longer see any COM port for the device in the device manager.

OK It may be working at long last. By the way how does Visual Studio communicate with the device when I no longer see the special COM port listed in device manager?

Next - How can I write some code to write to the flat LCD display? T43)?

It should show up in the device mangager as USB Device and you should be able to deploy a TinyCLR App from Visual Studio. In VS doubleclick on properties and on the left side under TinyCLR when you select the Device G400 should show up.
PS: I have no experience with T43 display under TinyCLR