Hello 

I am using VS2010 Pro with SP1. I can compile projects put when I hit F5 (Start Debugging) I get an error message immediately.

"Unable to start Program"
pleServer.exe "

"The system cannot find the file specified."

Any ideas? 

Thanks very much.

It works with the Arduino compiler. I have tested other projects like Blink and I get the same results with VC 2010

Is there any additional information I can provide you at this point? 

Hi, yes arduino does not have such a think as an exe, you are only seeing the message about the exe because visual micro is not happy and therefore is not handling the upload.

What happens if you click "Start>Without debugging"? This should do the same as F5 seeing that Arduino does not have the concept of debug.

Can you check your arduino exe path is correct.

Can you switch on verbose under tools>options>visual micro>compiler. Lets' see what that shows up.

After you get the error you might be able to click back to the output window to see better error info?

Can you email a screen shot of your vs pen with blink showing the error to info [at] visualmicro.com

Please also confirm the error you get when attempting to upload blink.

Thanks

Ahaha, now I see the problem. The plugin is not installed properly. 

When you see the build succeeded you are seeing the visual studio c++ build and not the arduino build. 

The reason for switching on verbose was to see what the plugin was doing during compliation not to fix anything directly. With verbose, you would see a very different output if the plugin was handling the compilation. In fact, without verbose it would show the same compiler output as the arduino ide.

So we just need to look at why the plugin is not working...

I need to ask you some questions:-

1) You are seeing a list of boards in the boards list?
2) You can click "File>New Arduino Project", enter a name such as "MyTest" and a new Arduino sketch opens in Visual Studio?
3) You can click into the loop() code of MyTest.ino and press CTRL+J to see a list of Arduino methods and properties. In the list should be "Serial"
4) On the Project menu you can see "Add Arduino Library" with "User" and "Core" sub menus below?
5) You can close Visual Studio, open task manager and confirm that no instances of devenv.exe are running if they are then terminate them
6) You can re-open Visual Studio and try to compile/upload. Do things still look the same?

If you can asnwere these questions please then I will have some more questions for you.

Thanks

1) Can you re-open the test project and add the eeprom library by clicking "Project>Add arduino library>core>eeprom". Does this add #include <eeprom.h> to the top of MyTest.pde?

2) When you switch board between Uno and mega 2560. Pressing CTRL+J in the Uno code should show just one "Serial" option. CTRL+J with mega 2560 selected should show "Serial", "Serial1", "Serial2" etc. Do you see this difference when switching between these two boards?

3) It as though visual studio is not calling vm for events such as "Build" and "Start". We haven't had anyone else report this so I wonder if another addin or extension is overriding the C++ build and preventing vm from having the opportunity to override things. Do you have other plugins installed? Please check "Tools>Extension Manager" and "Tools>Addin Manager". What do you see in these two lists?

Thanks

Okay well thanks for answering all of my questions so clearly. So the plugin is installed correctly but Visual Studio isn't allowing it to handle the build or compile process. You have a full user interface with intellisense working correctly between different boards. This indicates that Visual Studio is sending some events to the plugin correctly.

This seems specific to your install of Visual Studio and is certainly the most strange problem we have ever encountered so I can only suggest these ways forward:-

1) Run a VS repair using the Visual Studio Installer
2) If the repair doesn't fix things then I will tell you how to create a simple addin project for Visual Studio in which we can add nothing other than the events to handle compile. This will allow us to prove the basic addin/plugin functionality is working in your VS system.
3) If we prove 2) to be OK, then I will make a version of the plugin with additional trace and error messages to show where the problem is.

I am sorry this process has been painful for you. What is surprising is that the plugin system is very simple so this is the last place I would expect to have problems.

One last question: Have you installed any additional arduino libraries since installing the arduino ide? I ask the question even although vm has been proven to work with tons of different arduino libs, but I have to ask because it is such a weird problem

Maybe it is an idea to see what happens if you temporarily remove the library, re-start vs and try to small test  sketch again? 

Where can I download it from?

Is there anyway I can do a fresh installation? After an uninstall of VM, VS2010 is still aware of Arduino. Tells me the registry is not being cleaned. Your thoughts?

Yes, that is the way I did the uninstall...

UPDATE: I grabbed a brand new machine and did the install of VS2010, Arduino, VM add-in, and VM debugger.

Then played around with Blink: recompile, upload, debug, etc..I did see the error where it says it cant find the .exe. I click OK and everything continued to work and I have never seen the error again.

I installed the Linksprite Library and have compiled and run the demos. So far all is well.

I would like to get it working on my original machine so I dont have to carry around 2 laptops.

I would be happy to try anything for you to help get it resolved.