Newbie needing help

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tonetone123
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:43 am

Newbie needing help

Post by tonetone123 »

So basically I took an electrical engineering class and loved it. I thought I would nerd out for my girlfriend and make her this for her birthday and write a cute message. I decided to do a kit and bought this one thinking that I would just be learning how to solder. Turns out all this programming stuff is out of league. I have managed to get everything together up to the computer programming part. I pasted what is going on below. Sometimes it seems like my terminal isn't doing anything when i type in the code. There will be no output. Is this normal. After I do this code echo 'PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile it doesn't have any output message it just allows me to type another line. Next I can't seem to locate any devices. When I do the ls /dev/cu.* (with and without the space between ls and /dev) it says command not found. In the toturial it shows there are multiple devices like bluetooth stuff. I don't get any of that. it just says command not found. Anyway her birthday is today now that it is after midnight.. any suggestions? Thanks

FIRST: Are you using a Minipov3 from a kit or from DIY? YES
SECOND: What OS and computer are you using? mac OSX
THIRD: Are you using a USB adapter or a serial port? USB to serial adapter
FOURTH: Did the minipov light up at all when you turned it on? YES
FIFTH: What -specifically- isn't working? I can't find the location in my terminal
SIXTH: Post screenshots (NOT copy&paste) of what is happening

I know you said no copy and past but i'm not sure how to print screen on a mac. I know this is bad. lol

Macintosh-9:~ anthonyelangovan$ echo $PATH
%PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin
Macintosh-9:~ anthonyelangovan$ ls /dev/cu.*
-bash: ls: command not found



SEVENTH: Post clear, in-focus, not-blurry, easy to see photos of the top and bottom of the kit. If the photos are blurry, unfocused, and difficult to see they will only make it harder to debug what is going on
Attachments
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photo 1.JPG
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User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88088
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Newbie needing help

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Your soldering doesn't look bad, but you should clip those long leads closer to the board.
What type of usb/serial adapter are you using, and have you installled the correct driver for it?

Algolosaur
 
Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:29 am

Re: Newbie needing help

Post by Algolosaur »

Well, your problem is that you have clobbered your PATH. (PATH tells the system where to find command line programs).

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Macintosh-9:~ anthonyelangovan$ echo $PATH
%PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin
Macintosh-9:~ anthonyelangovan$ ls /dev/cu.*
-bash: ls: command not found
Compare with

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Avatar:~ mikej$ echo $PATH
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/CrossPack-AVR/bin:/opt/local/bin
we see PATH is a series of directories where programs live, each appearing once, separated by colons. "%PATH" does not belong at all (probably a typo for $PATH, which would explain where your PATH went.

My problem is that what with installers and not having mucked with it for years, I cannot remember all the tricks in setting the PATH, and hesitate to make things worse for a newbie. So, wait for someone to confirm this before doing anything.

That said, I have no .bash_profile, and I believe it is a shell customization file, so your original $PATH is not lost, merely eclipsed.

Now, .bash_profile is a "dot file", which means it is hidden, and OSX doesn't make it easy to see them. It is there, and the command line tools can see it, but they mostly live in /bin which has been taken off your PATH.

Try this

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/bin/cat .bash_profile
That will tell the system that cat is in bin so it can find it.

If there is nothing other than a PATH line, you should be able to delete it

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/bin/rm -i .bash_profile
(answer y to the remove .bash_profile? prompt, answer n if it asks about anything else)

Exit Terminal, and restart it. This should get ls back.

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echo $PATH
should tell you your base PATH, see if /usr/local/bin is already there. If it isn't, try your

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echo 'PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin' >> ~/.bash_profile
again.


Algolosaur

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