I have not emailed them, thanks for the info!! I will email them as so as I get home from work today or first thing tomorrow! Hopefully this will help take some of the frustration away!! Lol. Thanks again!
Cool. The online forum is really designed for community support where help@inventables.com is our official Customer Success Department.
I did not realize that! Thanks again!
Real quick have you thought about having a live chat feature where we could basically IM tech support instead of going through emails?? Seems like it would be easier and quicker to resolve issues with tech support!! Just thought I would ask!
2 Likes
I donât know if they have tested that approach. Iâll float it at the next meeting.
1 Like
Ok fellas,I to have developed a port problem. Up until today I had no problem finding my port (which is 4 btw) but starting today my computer will just spin and spin and not locate the port? I have unloaded and reloaded the software for this to no avail. I am at a loss as to where to go to fix this. Any suggestions?
Man I have been trying to fix this problem for almost a week now. Im going to try and email help support in the morning! If it gets fixed I will post the results on here!
So this is kind of embarrassing, I took the arduino and Grbl shield out of the enclosure to check for any shorts, soldering problems or any signs of anything that could be causing these problems. I didnt see anything physically wrong with them, so I connected to 2 boards together, outside of the enclosure and tried to connect to easel and UGS on the computer with Vista, IT WORKS!! But it still does not work on my original computer with Windows 7! So apparently I was dealing with 2 issues, during the troubleshooting of the first problem, I must have worked the board loose just enough that I lost connection. So like I said I still cant connect to the Windows 7 computer, In Easel when I try to connect to a port I still get the ( : ) option only. And UGS wont even open for me at all! So Im back to thinking that computer has an OS problem!
At least its progress and that makes me feel a little better and a little less frustrated. Im going to try to install updates, if that doesnt work I will try recovery to an earlier date and all else fails I will insert my Widows Install disk and reinstall windows as an upgrade to keep all my files and go from there!
1 Like
Thinking back Im sure that the board separated just enough when I flipped the fan over, I must have tugged on the wires or something just enough to fully lose connectionâŚnow back to trying to figure out the original problem!
If this is not a fresh install of Windows 7, you can also try uninstalling older programs - particularly programs that use or poll the COM ports. I always try to use a fresh install of Windows 7 on my CNC computer. Here are some other things to look for:
-you may need to disable Bluetooth serial ports or other networked COM ports in the Device Manager. The Arduino software scans all the serial (COM) ports on your computer when it starts and when you open the Tools menu, and these networked ports can sometimes cause large delays or crashes.
Check that youâre not running any programs that scan all serial ports, like USB Cellular Wifi Dongle software (e.g. from Sprint or Verizon), PDA sync applications, Bluetooth-USB drivers (e.g. BlueSoleil), virtual daemon tools, etc.
Make sure you donât have firewall software that blocks access to the serial port (e.g. ZoneAlarm).
You may need to quit Processing, PD, vvvv, etc. if youâre using them to read data over the USB or serial connection to the Arduino board.
Also uninstall all of the drivers and start again from scratch. SHould work - or bad board. Can you experiment with a different Arduino? Get the blinking LED going?
Well here is the thing: when I built my X CARVE, I wiped out my computer by installing a fresh install of Windows 7. and everything was working fine for 2 1/2 weeks. I had about 8 - 10 hrs of carving time on it before the trouble started. When I go into the device manager, the only port on there is for the Arduino, so I dont think I can disable any other ports cause there are not any other ports.This Laptop was going to be strictly dedicated to the CNC machine so I have no other programs installed besides the Arduino environment and Drivers, Java, Google Chrome, and USG. That is it! Windows firewall is shut off and I havent even installed an Antivirus like AVG or Macfee yet!! I have also tried to uninstall all the arduino drivers and reinstall them and I get the same results, besides the drivers shouldnt have anything to do with UGS not opening at all, thats what led me to believe that its something to do with the OS.
Now I had just installed the updates for windows and now Im getting blue screen of death so Im restoring an earlier point until I find the update that caused this. It has to be one of the optional updates cause I install the important updates first, restarted my computer and everything was fine. When I proceeded to the optional updates I just selected everything besides the language updates and installed, then blue screen.
Hungh. Do you happen to have a powered USB port? Something that can plug into your laptopâs USB port but supply its own power? Laptops sometimes meter the amount of power their USB ports can provide. If a spike or reverse current is detected by the laptop, that could effect the amount of power that particular port can supply. I assume you tried different usb ports on your laptop as well. I have one port on one laptop that I messed up doing an arduino project - it no longer detects my Arduino, so I have to use the other one.
I have a external hard drive that supplies its own power! If you mean to test to see if the port actually works, I have pluged a wireless mouse and that worked fine and I also plugged in my iPhone and that worked fine! Maybe I should delete the whole arduino drivers, envoronment and everything one more time and re-download everything??
Yep. That shouldnât take long. Maybe try to force the machine NOT to detect your drivers automatically and manually point it to the Arduino driver. If it finds and installs a driver automatically that could be a problem.
If you are using a powered or non USB hub, i would advise against using it with the X-carve, i have seen them cause many strange issues in the past and if i remember correctly there were some issues using them with Arduino but would have to go back and check
It seems like it would be a good idea to have an extra arduino around so you could boot up the Arduino IDE and verify your computer can connect to a functioning Arduino. I use them for nearly all my projects - except, ironically my CNC machine. 
As for powered USB Hubs, Paul makes a good point. Unless you are using a good one. The test is to see if that particular computerâs USB Hub protection circuit is being triggered everytime the Arduino + Shield is connected. Wonât do any harm. Plus, the USB port SHOULD come back after reboot - hence the working mouse and Iphone.
Here is a similar story: https://snowulf.com/2010/10/25/arduino-usb-dangerous/
Im using the USB thats on the laptop.
So I deleted every trace of the Arduino and Easel Local of the computer then I plugged in the arduino with didnt download the Arduino correctly, I then downloaded the arduino environment file and it automatically updated the Arduino file! I went ahead and tried to update anyway but it said that all drivers were already up to date. I then clicked the link in the X CARVE instructions for Easel setup, and downloaded the Easel Local file. Then I went into the Easel setup selected my machine, it said to pick a port and still the only option I have is ( : ) like in the picture above!! So I dont think it necessarily the drivers, for some reason my windows wants to automatically update the drivers and may be causing the issue?? I dont know.
Did you ever try Arduino along without inserting Gshield on it. If your USB port recognize it as soon as you plug the USB cable, your Laptop and ports have no problem. When you insert Gshield then power on, if you lost USB connection, you can tell if Gshield or any harness assembly have problems. If Iâm you, I start with nothing connected to Gshield except power, then insert one element at a time until lost USB connection. My USB connection problem was faulty Z axis switch, every since all my ports came back to life. If it make sense.
Thats the think the port recognizes the arduino the whole time, its the programs that arent connecting if you look at the pics above the port continues to have the Arduino name in it but I cant get Easel or UGS to find it! I dont know if that even makes sense!! Its seems like the laptop recognizes it but I cant get the programs to communicate with it!
1 Like