12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

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mightymattp
 
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12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

Hi,

I'm new to RGB LED's and Andruino. I just received an Arduino UNO and the 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + 5V 2A (2000mA) switching power supply, the Female DC Power adapter - 2.1mm jack to screw terminal, the 4-pin JST SM Plug + Receptacle Cable Set, and a 4 x AA Battery Holder with On/Off Switch.

I followed the tutorial and connected everything (via 5V wall wart, not battery) - one LED (closest to the power) lights up when powered. When I connect to Arduino, the first three LEDs light up. When I run the strandtest on my Macbook pro w/ latest Arduino software, I get the error message "Problem uploading to Board."

Binary sketch size: 3,330 bytes (of a 32,256 byte maximum)
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

What am I doing wrong?

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

If you open the 'Tools' menu and go down to the 'Serial Port' popup menu, do you see an item that's checked?

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pburgess
 
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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by pburgess »

Check the 'board' menu as well, make sure this matches 'Arduino Uno'.

It's normal for a few random LEDs to come on when power is first applied; they'll do the right thing once the code is running on the Arduino.

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

Arduino Uno is selected for the board.

However the serial port will not list the proper setting for Arduino Uno - which I've read is /dev/tty.usbmodem621

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

Are there 3rd programs running on a mac which might interfere with the connection to the Arduino?

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

mightymattp wrote:Are there 3rd programs running on a mac which might interfere with the connection to the Arduino?
Possibly, but it isn't likely.

Head over to System Preferences and open the Network pane. When you connect the USB cable between your Mac and the Arduino, so you see an item for "USB Modem"? Its status will be "Not configured", but that doesn't matter. The only thing that's important is whether the OS has loaded the driver necessary to talk through the USB port.

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

I opened the Network Preference and connected the arduino (it lights up) - but there is nothing about USB. Just Ethernet, Firewire, and Airport. I've rebooted the IDE as well - nothing.

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

Does Java have anything to do with arduino? Mac just released some updates @ Java due to security problems.

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

I borrowed a known to work Arduino Uno and plugged it in. It doesn't have the blinking yellow light that mine does. Curiously I checked the System Profiler - the working Arduino doesn't list as it should inside System Profiler when connected - but the green light is on (on the Arduino). This is a working USB.

Any reason's why an Arduino won't show up?

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The LED lights up whenever the Arduino has power. Two lines in a USB cable are 5v and GND, so any normal USB connection will give the Arduino adequate power. The remaining two lines are the problem.. those are the ones that pass data back and forth.

Not seeing any USB devices in the Network preferences pane says the OS hasn't loaded the driver necessary to handle that communication.

The Adruino IDE does use Java, but that works at a different layer of abstraction than the USB-communication part. I just downloaded a new Java runtime a couple days ago and have gotten the Arduino IDE to talk to several devices since then.

As for System Profiler, you may have seen the device without knowing how to identify it. I just connected an Uno to my Mac and it shows up in the USB report under the incredibly helpful name of 'Communication Device'.

It looks like your system didn't create an official 'device' when you plugged in your Arduino. I can't reproduce that on my own system, but try plugging in the Arduino you know to work, go to the Network pane again, and hit the '+' button on the bottom-left of the device list. That will give you the option to create a new device, and 'USB Modem' should (hopefully) be one of the options as long as the Arduino is visible to the USB controller.

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by mightymattp »

Nothing was showing up - tried everything. Brought in a Arduino techy. Turns out my USB cable was bad? Strange b/c I was using it fine to connect to a printer a day ago.

Everything is working now.

Thanks!

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Re: 12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels + Arduino UNO - Not working - Need Help!

Post by pburgess »

Ah ha! Glad to hear you got it working. Will keep that in mind should similar issues arise in the future.

Just out of curiosity, was it a retractible USB cable? I've noticed with some of these, because the wires are particularly thin and delicate, they'll work fine for basic data stuff...e.g. syncing a phone, or using a printer as you mention...but can't handle the current to charge a phone (or perhaps to power an Arduino project).

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