Hello, I have a problem with my new FEZ Hydra: the device manager of Windows 7 cannot find the COM port because when I connect the hydra to the usb it is not able to recognize the device… (the message is “USB Device Not Recognized”). I tried various workarounds: different usb cables, another USB port, drivers reinstallation (but it doesn’t work because it can’t recognize the USB device) and I measured the voltage on the board with a DVM: there are both 3.3V and 5Vdc and they seem to be stable…
Led “power” is always on, and the other led (on the right side of the board) is always off.
The display (TE35) is always turned on (all white).
Power module is an USB Client SP.
Thank you for the help!
Thank you for the fast reply, andre.marschalek. I tried to follow your procedure but it still doesn’t work…
Even with only the usb client connected… it is always the same…
Yes, my Win7 is a physical machine, I also tried with a different Win7 machine and even with a WinXP virtual machine…
Moreover, when I select the driver (GHI_NETMF_WinUsb) manually it fails (it says that it is not possible to find the driver for the “unknown” device).
I start thinking that this may be an hardware issue of my hydra… but it’s strange because it’s new…
The monitor of my PC has an integrated USB hub, anyway to be sure, I tried also with another external powered hub… without success.
I measured the voltage on the pins of the connector D of hydra, and I found the 5 and 3.3V… thus I think this is not a power supply problem.
For the Hydra you will want to install the GHI_NETMF_Interface and not the WinUSB drivers. Hydra currently is the only NetMF 4.2 board not supporting WInUSB drivers. Here is a link to the Wiki for a further explanation: Home - GHI Electronics
Try using those drivers and see if things improve.
Ok Aron thank you for the info, I tried with GHI_NETMF_Interface\x86 drivers, but the message from Windows is always the same: “cannot find drivers for unknown device”…
By the way… I also measured the current supplied from the USB port to the hydra (with the TE35 connected) and it is about 200-210mA… it seems normal…
Do you happen to have a USB to Serial module? If you do you can bypass USB and boot in Serial mode and you can connect it to a terminal software to get debug information. If you do not you may want to see if the samba boot program on the processor can enumerate the USB. To do that you will need to ground Pin 8 to Pin 10 on either Socket 3 or 4 for a few seconds on power-up.
I don’t have a specific USB to Serial module, but in my laboratory I have an USB to serial adapter (with 3.3V signal level) that I use for other purposes.
I just need to know where I have to connect the RX (in) and TX (out) signals to the hydra… (and GND, of course)
The Gadgeteer UART socket ‘U’ has this pin layout:
Pin 1: +3.3v
Pin 2: +5v
Pin 3: GPIO! ← Interrupt capable
Pin 4: TX(G) ← Optional GPIO
Pin 5: RX(G) ← Optional GPIO
Pin 6: GPIO
Pin 7: N/C ← Not connected
Pin 8: N/C ← Not connected
Pin 9: N/C ← Not connected
Pin 10: GND
This is just the UART Standard if the socket was only UART to learn more about the Socket standards visit the Gadgeteer page here: http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=.NET%20Gadgeteer%20Socket%20Types&referringTitle=Documentation
Also you need to connect this to socket 5 to get the debugger UART port.
Could you try manually updating the Hydra? By following the following guide ( http://wiki.tinyclr.com/index.php?title=Firmware_Update_FEZ_Hydra ) you will be able to update the Tinybooter and TinyCLR without using the USB communications initially. This will rule out the possibility that your problems are related to a communication error due to a bad transfer.
@ James: I already tried with various manual updating procedures, even with SSD or by removing and then remounting JMP1, but nothing happens… the display is always blank (full white) and, when I remove the SSD the “usb unknown device” message reappeares in the device manager window…
@ Aron: Ok, now I’m going to try with the uart connection. What are the settings of the uart in the terminal software?
Baud rate: 115200
Data: 8 bit
Parity: none
Stop: 1 bit
Flow control: none
To get it into Serial debug you need to ground pin 8 on socket 14 upon power-up.
Thanks Aron, now the uart connection is working. When powered (with pin8 of socket 14 grounded), it transmits the message “RomBOOT” followed by a prompt “>”… nothing more than this.
How can I go on?
Have you tried to update the firmware but unsuccessfully? Your reply to James indicates this. If you did try the manually way, did you ground pin 8 of either socket 3 or 4 for a few seconds after powering up the board? If you did, did you get a USB enumeration?
I tried to power up the board with pins 8 and 10 of sock3 connected together for 5 seconds, but nothing changes.
Always “unknown usb device” and always “RomBOOT” “>”.
I see no USB enumeration.
One last thing to try, how are you powering up the device? Are you running straight from the PC or are you using a powered USB hub? Sometimes the PC port alone cannot provide sufficient power to the board.
I even looked back at the earlier posts to make sure I was not giving repeat advice. Doh! I am Multi-Tasking too many tasks. 
@ DiegoIT
Unfortunately there is probably something wrong with the board. The Atmel boot program should enumerate with a basic (non special) USB driver which usually is a GPS camera. Follow andre.marschalek earlier advice from post #8 about acquiring an RMA.
Ok now I understand… the problem is in the Atmel boot program. It is possibile that it is corrupted or erased ?! There is a way for me to re-upload this boot program?
Unfortunately the Atmel Boot program is hard coded to the processor. The only option at this point is the RMA.
Ok. Thank to you all for the support