Serial Mode

NETMF & Gadgeteer
1

Hey,

I would like to create a program to communicate to .NET desktop application through USB port and CDC driver. According to the documentation firstly I have to switch deployment and debugging into Serial Mode. This is my problem.

I use the Reaper board and the USB Client SP. I’m restarting the board keeping LDR0 button down. Afterwards I can see GHI Bootloader Interface (COM6) under Ports (COM & LPT) in Device manager. Then going into VS and navigating to Properties -> .NET Micro Framework Deployment and selecting Serial in the Transport field. COM6 is visible on the Device drop down list so I’m selecting it. Next I am clicking on ‘Start’ button in VS and…

Output:
[em]Looking for a device on transport 'Serial’
Starting device deployment…
Iteration 0
Opening port \.\COM6
Attaching debugger engine…
… cannot attach debugger engine![/em]

Error list:
[em]Unable to communicate with device Serial:COM6[/em]

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

2

@ SQ5X - You need to set the MODE pin, not LDR0. MODE can be found on pin 3 of socket 14.

3

Hi John,

Thanks for the quick answer. Sorry for lame question but how can I set the MODE pin? Do I have to connect this PIN somewhere?

Thanks,
Dariusz

4

@ SQ5X - Connect it to GND to enter serial debugging mode.

5

I had to move to a virtual machine with Windows 7 because I couldn’t install unsigned CDC Driver on my host machine with Windows 8.1. I think I’m one step ahead now but still it’s not working as expected. I connected the PIN 3 as you advised before. Now when I’m connecting my Reaper into the PC it’s installed as CDC Interface (COM3) under Ports (COM & LPT) node. I updated the driver according to guidelines in the documentation and Windows tells that ‘This device is working properly.’. I am assuming that so far it is good. Correct? I’m going to Visual Studio, changing USB to SERIAL, selecting COM3, clicking ‘Start’ and… the same :frowning:

Output:
[em]Looking for a device on transport 'Serial’
Starting device deployment…
Iteration 0
Opening port \.\COM3
Attaching debugger engine…
… cannot attach debugger engine![/em]

Error List:
[em]Error 1 Unable to communicate with device Serial:COM3 [/em]

Thanks,
Dariusz

6

@ SQ5X - Did you connect a USB to serial module to COM1? The USB Client SP module cannot be used for serial debugging.

7

Yes, indeed I wanted to debug code through the USB Client SP.

8

You can’t have both serial CDC mode as well as Client SP debugging.