USB Device Drops During or After Upload with Adafruit M0/M4 Feather Express Boards

Development Platforms
1

I’m having trouble reliably uploading firmware to Adafruit M0/M4 Feather express boards. The USB device disconnects in several circumstances:

  • During an upload the firmware progress bars show an upload is in progress, then an error message shows up and the upload files
  • Sometimes the upload proceeds successfully, but then the board does not reconnect. So I can’t monitor the serial port for output. I make several attempts to reconnect the board including:
    • Hitting the reset button on the board.
    • Putting the board into boot loader mode by double tapping the reset button.
    • Physically disconnecting the board and then reconnect it.
    • If I look for the USB device in the /dev directory or in Windows device manager it does not reliability show up.
  • Sometimes the works, but most of the time the board does not reconnect.

Here are the things I’ve tried to fix the problem:

  • Upgraded to latest version of Platform IO:
pio --version 
>>>PlatformIO, version 4.3.4
  • Tried different machines with different operating systems. So far I’ve tried:
    • macOS Catalina
    • Ubuntu 19.10
    • Windows 10 (Insider Edition on the fast ring).
    • Rasbian Buster through platformio remote
  • Upgraded to latest boot loader on board. I’m running Adafruit v3.1 bootloader for the boards.
  • Forced v3.6.1 of bossic as recommended in this post.
  • Changed the Reopen Serial Port Monitor Delay from 0 to 2000 in VS Code from the same post above.
  • I have several different boards. I’m having the same problem on each.

Here are some relevant outputs:

user@MacBook-Air projec_dir % pio device list
/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
-------------------------------
Hardware ID: n/a
Description: n/a

/dev/cu.theBTunes3-CSRGAIA
--------------------------
Hardware ID: n/a
Description: n/a

/dev/cu.usbmodem14201
---------------------
Hardware ID: USB VID:PID=239A:801B SER=889DB1EA504D5257342E314AFF0B1826 LOCATION=20-2
Description: Feather M0 Express


user@MacBook-Air projec_dir % platformio run --target upload -v --environment m0_express
Processing m0_express (platform: atmelsam@3.6.1; board: adafruit_feather_m0_express; framework: arduino; lib_deps: PololuMaestro)
----------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIGURATION: https://docs.platformio.org/page/boards/atmelsam/adafruit_feather_m0_express.html
PLATFORM: Atmel SAM 3.6.1 > Adafruit Feather M0 Express
HARDWARE: SAMD21G18A 48MHz, 32KB RAM, 256KB Flash
DEBUG: Current (atmel-ice) External (atmel-ice, blackmagic, jlink)
PACKAGES: 
 - framework-arduinosam 4.1.190506 
 - tool-bossac 1.10900.0 (1.9.0) 
 - toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi 1.40804.0 (4.8.4)
LDF: Library Dependency Finder -> http://bit.ly/configure-pio-ldf
LDF Modes: Finder ~ chain, Compatibility ~ soft
Found 9 compatible libraries
Scanning dependencies...
Dependency Graph
|-- <PololuMaestro> 1.0.0 (/Users/mgandhi/.platformio/lib/PololuMaestro)
Building in release mode
MethodWrapper(["checkprogsize"], [".pio/build/m0_express/firmware.elf"])
Advanced Memory Usage is available via "PlatformIO Home > Project Inspect"
RAM:   [=         ]   7.9% (used 2596 bytes from 32768 bytes)
Flash: [=         ]  12.5% (used 32760 bytes from 262144 bytes)
.pio/build/m0_express/firmware.elf  :
section            size        addr
.text             32408        8192
.data               352   536870912
.bss               2244   536871264
.ARM.attributes      40           0
.comment            112           0
.debug_frame       3068           0
Total             38224
<lambda>(["upload"], [".pio/build/m0_express/firmware.bin"])
AVAILABLE: atmel-ice, blackmagic, jlink, sam-ba
CURRENT: upload_protocol = sam-ba
BeforeUpload(["upload"], [".pio/build/m0_express/firmware.bin"])
Auto-detected: /dev/cu.usbmodem14201
Forcing reset using 1200bps open/close on port /dev/cu.usbmodem14201
Waiting for the new upload port...
bossac --info --debug --port "cu.usbmodem14201" --erase --write --verify --reset -U --offset 0x2000 .pio/build/m0_express/firmware.bin
No device found on cu.usbmodem14201
*** [upload] Error 1
================= [FAILED] Took 11.52 seconds =================

Environment     Status    Duration
--------------  --------  ------------
m0_express      FAILED    00:00:11.523
m4_express      IGNORED
m0_black_magic  IGNORED
============ 1 failed, 0 succeeded in 00:00:11.523 ============

Platform.ini

[env:m0_express]
platform = atmelsam@3.6.1
;platform = https://github.com/platformio/platform-atmelsam.git
board = adafruit_feather_m0_express
framework = arduino
lib_deps =
    PololuMaestro

[env:m4_express]
platform = atmelsam@3.6.1
board = adafruit_feather_m4
framework = arduino
lib_deps =
    PololuMaestro

Please let me know if there is a fix or additional troubleshooting steps. At this point I’m considering switching boards to something more reliable.

2

@mgandhi I too am frustrated by this issue. Have you tried using the Arduino editor. I do not have these issues with that editor and uploading. However I don’t want to use it. I want to use PlatformIO. Because of this I am not convinced that this is an issue with the Adafruit boards. There must be something in the board definition or how PlatformIO talks to it. You were using a Feather. I have also tried the ItsyBitsy M4.

When I try to upload I have to double press to force boot loader mode. This should only need to be done once when using the Arduino editor. The uploader tries until 50-80% then stops. We don’t get to the verify stage. I do this several times, and eventually I will get it to upload successfully. No changes to code. Very frustrating.

3

And the upload behavior is flawless in the Arduino IDE? With which Adafruit SAMD core version and which board settings is that exactly?

4

This might have been fixed now (since OP) and just user error (for me). I was struggling with this for a few days, but it is working now. Not sure what my originally issue was anymore, but I posted that it works for me here Inconsistent Problems uploading to an Adafruit M4.

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