New to pycom (pysense+lopy4)

[Bob1974]

I just received my pysense and lopy4 and tried to get up and running.

Environment: Windows 10, VSCode

First I tried to update the pysense firmware as suggested. This failed miserably.
https://docs.pycom.io/pytrackpysense/installation/firmware.html

"first install the DFU drivers" : The DFU-util link is simply a zip file with no instruction on how to "install" the contents on windows. Just put it in the path? Same directoy as zadig.exe?

I tried to follow the instructions on holding down the button when inserting the USB, holding for a second, etc. Zadig never recognized the device and it would only show up in device manager (libusbK USB Devices - Unknown Device #1) for a breif moment, never populates the Zadig boxes on the left side, so the "install driver" item is always greyed out.

So I gave up on that front and just plugged the lopy4 in anyway.

This got me a python terminal on com3, so that's exciting.

I looked at updating the firmware on the lopy4 as suggested, but I don't have an Exp Board. Sounds like this will mean no field updates, which is a red flag for me. Is there not a way to update the firmware over the serial port without grounding a special pin temporarily?

Then I tried the example here: https://docs.pycom.io/gettingstarted/programming/first-project.html

There's no instruction on how to set up VSCode (or atom for that matter)... so I checked the plugins available for VSCode and found "Pymakr". Installing it made VSCode unusable, so that's great. Just a continuous blinking "The terminal oricess command 'node.exe ..." truncated error message that interrupts entering characters anywhere in vscode.

Seems like the documentation is severely lacking.

[Bob1974]

I'm impressed with the immediate feedback! I'll let you know how it goes when I get a chance to look at this again.
Thanks

[Ralph]

HI @Bob1974,

About Pymakr: make sure you have nodejs installed on your system. It's listed as a dependancy (also see readme here: https://github.com/pycom/pymakr-vsc). That being said, Pymakr should give a nice error message when nodejs is nog installed properly and definitely not make vscode unusable. If installing nodejs fixes your issue, i'll go and see if there is a bug in the code that checks the nodejs version.

Let me know!

ps. here's the setup guide for Pymakr you were looking for, both for vscode and atom https://docs.pycom.io/pymakr/installation/

[Paul Thornton]

@bob1974 said in New to pycom (pysense+lopy4):

"first install the DFU drivers" : The DFU-util link is simply a zip file with no instruction on how to "install" the contents on windows. Just put it in the path? Same directoy as zadig.exe?

You just need it extracted somewhere you can access it via cmd/powershell ect.

I tried to follow the instructions on holding down the button when inserting the USB, holding for a second, etc. Zadig never recognized the device and it would only show up in device manager (libusbK USB Devices - Unknown Device #1) for a breif moment, never populates the Zadig boxes on the left side, so the "install driver" item is always greyed out.

You only have that brief period while device manager is showing the libusbk device to hit the install button in Zadig ( I think its 7? seconds). Ive found sometimes itll still be greyed out but hitting it will correctly find and install it anyway.

I looked at updating the firmware on the lopy4 as suggested, but I don't have an Exp Board. Sounds like this will mean no field updates, which is a red flag for me. Is there not a way to update the firmware over the serial port without grounding a special pin temporarily?

You could look into OTA updates perhaps they may fit your usecase? https://docs.pycom.io/tutorials/all/ota.html

There's no instruction on how to set up VSCode (or atom for that matter)... so I checked the plugins available for VSCode and found "Pymakr". Installing it made VSCode unusable, so that's great. Just a continuous blinking "The terminal oricess command 'node.exe ..." truncated error message that interrupts entering characters anywhere in vscode.

Ill ask the Pymakr developers to take a look into this as see if they know the cause. It should have "just worked". presuming an up to date install of VSCode.

[crumble]

Usage of the Zadig driver and the dfu util is explained in the link. But it is a little tricky anyway. On Win7 I had to deinstall the driver after each update.

I recommend linux for updating the pycom extension boards. A RasPi works like a charm. A virtual machine shall be OK.

You can update the Lopy4 with the pysense board. You don't need to shorten a pin, if you use a pycom board which has a PIC on it. pysense, pytrack or the new Exp.Borad 3 have one. Exp.Board 2 not, so you have to shorten this pin.
If you cannot upgrade, your pysense there may be 2 solutions.

• The update program will not find your LoPy if it is allready connected to an IDE like VScode or Atom.
• Your pysense runs a really old firmware. Update the pysense or shorten the pin.