can't connect micro:bit in Windows 10

[Dom Kelly]

Hi there,

I am trying to connect a micro:bit to the PCs at my school using Microblocks. The PCs are Windows 10 Education, OS Build 10586.1540.

I connect my micro:bit via USB and then open MicroBlocks. I click on 'Connect' and select 'Serial Port COM 3'. I then get a message saying 'this board is not responding. Try to install MicroBlocks on the board?' I select 'Yes' and select board - micro:bit. A terminal window pops up in the background, with a message 'Installed E:vm.ino.BBCmicrobit.hex (78691 bytes) In Microblocks, next to the 'Connect' button, the circle turns yellow (not green). When I join a 'when started' block and a 'display LED block', and press 'Start' nothing happens on the micro:bit. Do you know if I am doing something wrong, or if there is a bug?

Many thanks,

Dom

[John Maloney]

It sounds as though it installed MicroBlocks onto the micro:bit; that's good. The COM port is appearing, which is also good.

Try unplugging the serial cable and plugging it back again. Quit and restart MicroBlocks, then click the "Connect" button again and choose the COM port.

If that doesn't work, let me know. We've used MicroBlocks on Windows 10 in numerous workshop settings. There are sometimes some installation glitches, but once those are resolved MicroBlocks ends up working fine.

If your computer has several USB ports, you might try plugging the USB cable into a different USB port. (Although the fact that you were able to install MicroBlocks suggests that there's nothing wrong with the USB port...)

[Dom Kelly]

Many thanks for the quick response John! I will try all the things you mention when I'm back in the school computing suite tmrw and report back.

[Dom Kelly]

Hi Jon. So I tried what you suggested, but got the same result - yellow circle next to 'connect' and I can't see anything happening on the microbit.

I tried saving a gpp file from microblocks onto the microbit and that worked fine.

I wonder if the W10 machines in my school have a security setting that doesn't allow the installation of the particular file on the microbit? Or maybe the drivers aren't on the machines? I will keep trying, but let me know if you have any thoughts.

[John Maloney]

I'm sorry you're having trouble getting MicroBlocks up and running on your school's W10 machines.

Both of your theories seem possible. I'll do some digging and experimentation with my Windows 10 virtual machine to figure out how we can diagnose and fix the problem.

Meanwhile, do you have a non-school laptop or computer (not necessarily Windows) that you could use to test MicroBlocks? If so, I'd like to verify that MicroBlocks was successfully installed on your micro:bit and that your micro:bit works with MicroBlocks running on a non-school computer. If the exact same micro:bit and USB cable that works on your computer fails on the school W10 computer, that eliminates a lot of possible failure points (including the possibility that the installation process failed). What's left are a set of issues around the serial port, such as driver or access control issues.

[John Maloney]

I'm not a regular Windows user, but I did some poking around. I have Windows 10 build 14393.1358.

I opened the device manager by typing "device" to the search bar in bottom left of the screen:

and clicking on "Device Manager". I opened the "Ports (COM and LPT)" section and then opened the USB serial device to get this:

MicroBlocks connects to my micro:bit, so that's what things are supposed to look like when the serial port is working. Perhaps comparing your USB serial port setting to these will give us a clue. For example, perhaps your port is disabled. You could also try updating the drivers or, as a last resort, uninstalling the drivers. The drivers should get reinstalled when you unplug and replug the micro:bit.

One more thing you might try: log in as a System Admin (if you can) and try running MicroBlocks.

I hope we can figure this out; I think you and your students will really like MicroBlocks if we can get it working on the school computers.

[Dom Kelly]

Thanks for all this info and digging Jon. I tried using the same microbit with Microblocks on my Mac (I got the green connection light and it worked great) as on the offending W10 machines.

I got someone with admin access to try connecting as admin on one of the W10 machines, but they got the same result, so I don't think it's a permissions issue.

I'm afraid I am way out of my depth in terms of identifying any issues relating to ports :), so I thought at least a couple of screenshots from the device manager on the W10 machine might help.

Microblocks always tries to connect to COM3 port, so the screenshots are of that one. The second one is what I see when I click on driver details:

The lead tecnician from our school's IT support company is in tomorrow, so I will pick his brains. One thing I might ask him to do is to install the Crumble software on a W10 machine and see if that connects fine to a Crumble or not. If not, it would point to a problem on our school side.

Thanks once again for helping out to try to id a solution.

[John Maloney]

Hi, Dom.

Thanks for verifying that the micro:bit works with your Mac. That points the finger at a serial port or driver issue on the Win10 computer.

I'm not a Windows expert, but comparing your driver screenshots with mine I notice that mine is a "USB Serial Device" whereas yours is an "Intel(R) Active Management Technology - SOL". To me, that suggests that you do not have the correct USB-serial drivers installed. Try following the instructions here:

https://support.microbit.org/support/solutions/articles/19000022103-how-do-i-use-the-serial-port-with-a-micro-bit-on-windows

to install the "mbed" USB-serial drivers (or Microsoft equivalent).

[Dom Kelly]

Hi Jon. The IT support person installed the drivers and all now working fine! Many thanks for your help to resolve this issue.

[John Maloney]

That's great news! Thanks for your patience and for letting me know about the problem. Now I will know what to tell other educators who run into this problem.

I'll close this issue.

[John Maloney]

Installing the correct USB-serial drivers resolved the issue.