Arduino Serial COM ports missing or incorrect

by Visual Micro 11. March 2014 12:20

If you encounter a persistent problem where a COM port shows as the wrong number or Serial ports are missing entirely then this is most likely due to a corrupted windows wmi database.

By default Visual Micro looks for the "pretty" names of COM ports such as "COM11 - Arduino Uno". The pretty names are found in the windows wmi database.

If you would prefer not to find a solution to this problem then it is possible to force Visual Micro to work the "old" way, without using the wmi database.

In this case windows should provide Visual Micro with an accurate list of Serial ports.

To switch off wmi database usage ensure that the following three "Tools>Options>Visual Micro>Comunnications" options are set to 'False'

  • Friendly Port Menus
  • Friendly Ports Lists
  • Network Discovery

In the current release (14x.x) the side effect of disabling these options is that, wifi (yun) upload and publishing of files to an Arduino web server will not be available.

note: Visual Micro does not alter or install any com port or usb drivers

Serial Ports and Terminal Windows in Visual Studio and Atmel Studio

by Visual Micro 14. September 2013 14:46

The free Visual Micro plugin provides multiple Serial Port Terminals along with "auto-pause for upload" and optional usb "auto detect/re-connect". Serial port "Friendly Names" are optionally provided as part of the Visual Micro + upgrade.

  • Auto-reconnect will detect when the micro-controller has disconnected from the usb. The Ide will automatically reconect when the port becomes available again. This feature can be enabled/disabled in tools options
  • Auto-pause for upload detects when a usb upload to a micro-controller is about to be attempted on a port that is currently open as a terminal window. In this case the terminal will close the port and automatically re-open after the upload completes.
  • Discovery of "friendly" serial port names can be a great help compared to simply seeing COM1 and/or COM2 etc. The friendly name feature is switched on by default and can switched off in the Communications section of Visual Micro "Tools>Options"

An overkill example of many serial terminals and also of many connected devices :)

 

Arduino Visual Studio Dockable Serial Port Tool Windows

by Visual Micro 4. October 2011 17:53

Visual Studio dockable serial tool windows can be used for arduino and for many other applications.

The arduino boards' serial tool window will automatically pause during an arduino serial upload

 Arduino Visual Studio Example of Dockable Serial Ports Tool Windows