Arduino UNO with Windows trouble

[sKr0d]

I've purchased several Aruino UNOS from Adafruit and have been having great success with my 10-year old and I learning electronics and programming. So much fun, in fact, that I have purchased a bunch of new sensors and shields, and my workshop has become a mess with resistors, breadboard, leds, and so on. My latest addition is the TTL Serial Camera. I want to be able to capture video, etc. The trouble is, it requires me to use Windows to configure the durn thing... Until now, we have been using a Mac to program the Arduinos and have had no problem.

So, here it is: I have tried installing/uninstalling all of the Arduino software (currently on 1.0.2) and I have installed/uninstalled the UNO R3 driver multiple times (including dozens of reboots, cuz Windows is just that way.)

As you know, the video camera requires the VC0706Com.exe program to work with the camera. Because of my difficulty communicating with the UNO, I cannot use the software to configure the camera.

1) What am I doing wrong? I have Windows 7 (64-bit) and the Arduino UNO R3 is showing up on COM5. When I attempt to upload the blink sketch, I get this message: avrdude: usb_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"

I tried (as I mentioned) reinstalling/reconfiguring all of the software and drives (following examples from arduino.cc and in your TTL serial camera demo) Nothing works. I can upload the same from MacOS-X without a problem.

2) Is there any option to the Windows program to configure the camera? Maybe a Mac/Linux alternative?

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely, stuck-in-windows-hell

[sKr0d]

I forgot to mention. The problem I see when using CommTool is that the commuinications timeout. I selected COM5, and assume that the BaudRate is 38400 (since that is default). When I select Get Version, I get the timeout error. During my first test, I actually got it to respond with the code version you mention in your tutorial. Then, never again.

As I attempt to over-think this, I check the settings in Windows, and it says 9600... Should they match, or does the software handle that for me.

Lastly, I failed to mention that the .ino files I was attempting to upload were synced from my Mac via my git repo. I saw a mention about sharing .ino files between Mac and Windows. When I use the example sketch for Blink and Bare, they appear to upload fine. (face palm)

[sKr0d]

UGH -- I knew this would happen... As soon as I give-up and post to the forum, the damn thing starts working.

tmp2.jpg (11.91 KiB) Viewed 446 times

So, I discovered that I should employ patience when working with this stuff. I double checked all of my connections, and discovered that when I move the camera, it makes the LED go out on the UNO. When that happens, I get the timeout problems. If I close the CommTool program and power cycle the UNO, then be very still, I can get the version to show up, and even capture an image!! But as soon as I move the camera, and the wire wiggles in the breadboard, I am done. Apparently, the software does not reconnect. Probably at the UNO leve, since COM5 becomes unresponsive.

Next step is to solder up the contraption and put it on a solid header instead of flimsy breadboard pins.