I got my fez domino and I was able to successfully connect to VS and run. no trouble with drivers, i was able to control the board led. I then tried the Fez Term example and now I can not get the fez drivers to be loaded by windows vista.
I have tried every combo of rebooting and reinstalling the drivers. What happens is even after running the usb driver autoinstaller, windows vista asks for USBizi drivers, I point it to the SDK dir and it tells me it can;t find them it then asks for CDC vcom drivers. it can’t find them either and so the driver isn’t installed. very frustrating after about a dozen iterations.
Either the board or the windows vista pc is in a bad state, how do I fix this ? I am dead in the water and rather disappointed with FEZ as the target application is USB based.
should I expect this behavior from FEZ in the future ? How do I avoid this ?
You should first reflash the firmware, to start with a known (good) state. Then, when asked for the drivers, take those in the GHI program files folder. This should resolve your issue.
Be aware, though, that using USB debugging with CdC at the same time is a little different than debugging only with USB. “Device”, ie Domino, will disconnect, then you should pause debug, wait for new device attachment and then re-enable debugging.
A better solution might be using serial debugging, though.
You added code to run CDC on USB without reading the CDC section in manual carefully?
If not then why your FEZ is in boot loader mode?
FEZ’s greatest value is in its strong USB support. There are thousands running with no problem.
Not to worry my friend, we are here to the rescue. I will be in chat in the next 10 minutes, if you like jump in and I will diagnose your problem if you like.
First of all take a deep breath and relax. Fez can certainly do what you want. The code in FezTerm is doing exactly what you want to do. Doing it while using USB debugging is a feature that was added in the last firmware update. Previously you had to switch to serial debugging to use the USB for Fez to PC communication using CDC.
If you follow the instructions exactly updating the firmware is quite easy.
Thank you, but no one has explained how to reflash the firmware. I can’t find any explanation other than how to update the firmware (which i did when i got the board), which of course requires the drivers to work… which they dont…
You can use the USB Cdc and then debug via serial port or you can use Cdc and debugging via USB. This last one is the one you were pointed to the first time.
Debugging via the serial port while leaving USB for communications between FEZ and PC is done by using the “classic” USB client : CdC.
How would you update something on the board without connecting it to the PC ? :o
When you connect it and press the correct buttons sequence to put the Domino in bootloader mode, then Windows may ask for a driver. Before connecting it, though , you should download the set of drivers found here : http://www.tinyclr.com/dl/
Name : GHI NETMF USB Drivers 32-Bit Auto Installer (optional) or the other if you’re 64-bit
You should of course download Terraterm, install it and watch the update firmware video.
After the drivers are “installed”, then you connect the board and put it in bootloader mode and now Windows should find the correct drivers without your assistance. Just in case, they are in the program files directory.
Then, you launch Teraterm and proceed to update the firmware.
If you’re not satisfied with your Domino, I can buy it from you for $ 35. You would then only waste $39.
Unless someone has specific instructions, to fix what should be a simple problem, don’t waste my time by telling me to RTFM. I have read the documentation and watched the videos and this is still not working.
Does anyone actually work for the company that makes these things that can answer my questions ???
Repeating, my problem is so fundamental, the board will not connect to the PC, windows tells me the drivers do not work. either the board is in a bad state or windows is. I don’t care right now about how to program things later on, i just want to be able to ping the board!!! Which I was able to do yesterday!!!
You say you already RTFM but you just don’t know how to put the Domino in bootloader mode ? :o
That was RTWM, then : Read The Wrong Manual…
Now, about wasting your time, I’m really sorry, my lord. You’re unlucky, though : Domino doesn’t work for you, you’ve lost money, you’ve lost (precious) time… Will you also lose some hair or lose patience ?
Put your domino in bootloader mode (hold loader button down and then reset the board).
Now, go to Windows device manager. What do you see?
Any devices without drivers?
What COM ports do you see?
You can take a snapshot.
Thanks Mike, actually I got it working myself. You guys have issues with your Vista drivers. I did the firmware reload from my laptop which is XP and that worked. With Vista, nothing at all. I know Vista sucks, but…
Thanks, please consider this issue closed, I have a workaround.
This is why Ia asked you to get in the chat so I can step you through it. Sorry my friend buy you didn’t read the manual and if you did then you didn’t understand them. Not to worry, we will still help you out. We only ask you to not rush things too much and get frustrated. FEZ is all about being Freakin Easy and we have whole team and community to help you out…but you have to help us to help you
Thanks for all the help from everyone, my apologies for my curtness.
I will collect my experiences in a post so that others don’t have to go through the hassle I did to get CDC working.
Seriously though, you guys need to work on making your documentation more clear. I see now that the information is here, but its all over the place and not clearly unified for the first timers.
Maybe I have a learning disability but I had no idea how FEZ and GHI are connected.
Hopefully we have all learned something. Now I know where the GHI info is, hopefully you will not hear from me unless I have good news.
If you want all users to have a Freakin Easy experience, then you guys need to work on your examples, app notes, documentation, and navigation.
Thanks again, now if you will excuse me I have some coding to do : )
