M5Stack Fire can not connect

[patch li (二毛与我)]

M5Stack Fire is a microcontroller from the M5Stack-Core series. Recently, I encountered a serious issue while using this microcontroller: after flashing the firmware, it fails to connect properly. Specifically, when attempting to connect the device on the web page https://microblocksfun.cn/run/microblocks.html, it repeatedly disconnects and reconnects. The green circle background of the connection button keeps flashing, and Chrome's console continuously prints errors indicating device disconnection.

This issue started occurring when I began using a new M5Stack Fire device. My other older M5Stack Fire device does not experience this problem. I noticed that the USB drivers for the two M5Stack Fire devices, the old one being CP2104 USB to UART Bridge Controller and the new one being USB-Enhanced-SERIAL CH9102, are different. Perhaps this is the cause of the problem.

[John Maloney]

Hi, 二毛与我.

I'm sorry MicroBlocks is not working on the new M5 Fire.

It's possible that that something went wrong when you installed the MicroBlocks firmware. That can happen if some other program -- perhaps another instance of MicroBlocks or perhaps the IDE of a different system such as UIFlow -- attempts to communicate with the board while the firmware is being installed. It can also happen if there is bad USB connection or cable.

You might try restarting your computer (to stop any programs that might be running in the background) and reinstalling the MicroBlocks firmware with a complete Flash erase.

To do that, start MicroBlocks in Chrome but don't try to connect to the board right away. Select "show advanced blocks" ("显示高级积木"), then select "erase flash and update firmware on ESP board" ("擦除信息并升级 ESP 固件"). Connect to the Fire when MicroBlocks prompts you and then wait for the firmware install to complete, which may take several minutes. Finally, unplug and shut down the Fire, then plug it in, power it up, and try connecting to it.

If that does not work, you might try doing the installation process using another computer and/or trying a different USB cable.

Good luck! Let me know if that works.

[patch li (二毛与我)]

Hi, John.

I found the reason for the issue. When I was flashing the firmware, I always used "erase flash and update firmware on ESP board." Just now, I used "update firmware onboard" to flash the firmware again, and the problem disappeared. So strange!

Thank you for your response!

[John Maloney]

I'm glad you got it working.

Note that after "erase flash and update firmware on ESP board" the file system must be recreated, which can take a minute or two. During that time, the MicroBlocks IDE cannot connect to the board, which may be what you experienced..

[patch li (二毛与我)]

This is very important information, thank you!