Cyton Dongle does not appear in GUI port list
Hi,
I purchased a new Cyton board last month and have tried using it last week. The BLE board does not appear in OpenBCI GUI when I click refresh list. I have verified that the board appears/disappears in device manager when unplugging/replugging the dongle. The switch is set to GPIO_6 and the blue led is on.
Here is the log if that helps:
Console Log Started at Local Time: 2020-07-06_13-28-31
Screen Resolution: 1920 X 1080
Welcome to the Processing-based OpenBCI GUI!
For more information, please visit: https://openbci.github.io/Documentation/docs/06Software/01
OpenBCISoftware/GUIDocs
TopNav: Internet Connection Successful
Local Version: 500, Latest Version: 500
GUI is up to date!
OpenBCI_GUI::Setup: Sample Data exists in Documents folder.
ControlP5 2.2.6 infos, comments, questions at http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/controlP5
The file "C:\Users\Sava\Documents\OpenBCI_GUI\Settings\UserPlaybackHistory.json" is missing or
inaccessible, make sure the URL is valid or that the file has been added to your sketch and is readable.
OpenBCI_GUI::Control Panel: Playback history file not found or other error.
null
OpenBCI_GUI::Setup: Setup is complete!
sourceList: click!
Channel count set to 8
ConsoleLog: Copying console log to clipboard!
Comments
Sava, thanks.
Have you tried loading the latest FTDI drivers?
https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
Regards, William
Hi William,
The driver properties say its on the latest 2.12.28.0 version which is also the latest version the the ftdi site. Maybe I should re-flash the dongle firmware?
Thanks, Sava
Do you have another laptop available? If it fails there, then yes, reflash would be next thing to try. If it WORKS there, then possibly your OS or laptop hardware needs some new updates.
Tried on another computer and it worked. Thanks.
So it seems it worked on the new computer the first time, but now I'm getting similar errors. Its something to do with the COM port. If I change the port number it sometimes shows up in the list, but now when I try and connect to the cyton I get a error connecting to serial port message. This is consistent over 3 computers we have tried (2 windows, 1 mac). GUI 4.2 always shows the device on the list but is unable to connect to the cyton. 5.0 beta sometimes does not show the device on the list and if i change the com port number in device manager it will then sometimes appear.
I notice you mentioned GUI "5.0 beta"? You should be using the final release 5.0, not beta version. Why did you mention beta version?
Is is possible the RFduino in the dongle, and the RFduino on the Cyton mainboard, are on different "radio channels"? Try AUTOSCAN mentioned in the drop down section here,
https://docs.openbci.com/docs/01GettingStarted/01-Boards/CytonGS#5-optional-settings
If that does not improve the issue, yes, try the dongle firmware reload. Sorry this is happening on your new Cyton. Rarely there are glitches like this, but they have happened.
https://docs.openbci.com/docs/02Cyton/CytonRadios#uploading-host-firmware-to-the-openbci-dongle
Correction on the GUI version. Richard mentioned to me that v5 GUI is still technically 'beta', even though it is considered the latest and best version to use.
We got it working but it requires some fiddling during each new session.
Thanks,
Sava
Can you clarify about the 'fiddling' required with GUI v5? Is that same behavior present with GUI 4.x? Mentioning Richard @retiutut.
Mac is also requiring 'fiddling'?
In GUI 4.2, the dongle is always listed but trying to connect to it results in the message "error connecting to serial port". In GUI 5.0, the dongle is not always listed but connection works as soon as it becomes listed. To get it listed, I try unplugging and replugging the dongle, plugging it into a different USB port, changing the com port number in the device manager-> properties-> port settings-> advanced tab. There's no process to these steps. Sometimes doing one of these things will work, other times doing one or all of them does nothing. Eventually after fiddling with those steps, I can get it to work. The same steps work for both 4.2 and 5.0, its just quicker to verify in 5.0 because you don't need to attempt a connection to know if the dongle is going to work or not.
It should not be that hard. Does this same behavior happen on the Mac or your other Windows machine? If so, then the dongle or dongle firmware may be suspect. Did you reflash it?
On rare occasions, people do get a flaky dongle, on their initial purchase.
I tried the dongle on 3 windows machines and the behavior was consistent on all 3. I briefly tried on a mac with GUI 5.0 and the dongle did not appear in the list but I'm not enough familiar with mac to go through the the same process. I haven't re-flashed the firmware yet.
OK, if the re-flash does not help, then please send an email to contact at openbci.com, and explain what is happening. Link to this forum thread. They should be able to send you a new dongle that works consistently. Mentioning @openbci. Very sorry for your less than satisfactory experience.
I assume you already tried the AUTOSCAN I mentioned previously, correct? The fact that you can get the Cyton to eventually connect, means that the channels must agree on both dongle and Cyton mainboard. But the AUTOSCAN is still worth a try in case it resets some other related thing that is glitching.
Regards, William
@Sava
I think we have a potential fix coming for this soon. Sometimes, the dongle name would appear to be "vcp0" instead of the actual product name.
The Cyton dongle should "just work" if:
AUTOSCAN should be used once or twice to align the channels (like two walkie-talkies). Once the channels are the same, everything should "just work" and you can start using Cyton Auto-Connect.
Any functionality less than this should be addressed to [email protected] to determine next steps.
Hope this helps,
Richard W.