chrome picaxe programmer

I have been using the AXE027 download cable with success from picaxe editor, so I know that both the circuit and breadboard adapter are working. I am now trying to download from the picaxe programmer app in chrome. I have converted my files from .bas to .axe and used the AXE programmer to change the default driver
to FDTI PID 6001 as suggested yet when I program I get the error message hardware not found. I would love to have my students program from their chromebooks so any advice appreciated.

As long as the cable/COM port is being recognised it should work, what is the name of the COM port you have selected?

Also make sure your Chrome is relatively up to date, what version are you using (must be v45 or later)?

As well as the downloader app you can also try installing the full Blockly Chrome app.

Catrin: Where are you in NZ ? Which school ? Student ages ? I may be able to help. Stan. (Wellington)

Thanks for that I have done all of the above and still no luck

Catrin: (AGAIN!) Where are you in NZ ? Which school ? Student ages ? I may be able to help. Stan. (Wellington)

Hi Stan
You kindly offered your help back in May and I didn't get back to you. I am back to needing to download from blockly via the programming tool using the AXE027 cable and despite trying to reinstal the driver on the download cable I am recieveing the same error hardware not found message. I teach highschool students in West Auckland.

The cable is being recognised but a hardware error is coming up, although I know the circuit and chip are working fine. Is there anything else I am missing?

I have done this and get this error message
just checked the error message again and it says hardware not found /dev/ttyUSB0
chrome is up to date
Would love to solve this as I have a whole class of students with Chromebooks eager to programme.

"Hardware not found" errors are usually that the PICAXE is doing something which causes it to ignore download initiations. Those can usually be resolved by using the Hard Reset procedure -

Power off the PICAXE chip. Wait a few seconds, Initiate the download. A short while later turn the PICAXE power on. That should allow the download to work.

I cannot recall if the PICAXE Programming App puts up a "turn power on now" message, so you may have to experiment with how long to wait after initiating the download to turning the PICAXE power back on.

I think this is a long shot, but sometimes flavours of Linux need to have specific user permissions granted to the "serial" port. I know that I had to specifically add a line to file in the "etc" folder to allow the port to be usable. I have a feeling that the error message I used to get was very similar, but with the serial port designation rather than the USB port that the AXE027 is plugged into. Chrome books run a flavour of Linux, so may well have the same issue, with only super users having full permissions.

Chrome permissions don't work in the same way as mainstream Linux (although it is a derivative), there is no need to do this.

We still haven't been told which Chrome version as in post #2?

Can you program from the main Blockly PICAXE app (instead of the downloader app) on the chrome book? www.picaxe.com/blockly

We are using version 53.0.2785.154964-bit) and no I am unable to program from either the programmer or the blockly app.

SUCCESS from the Blockly app and programmer app. not really sure what happened, perhaps the hard reset. thanks everyone for the advice and support. I will have a class of happy students