Hardeware not found on COMx

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pvdven777

New Member
Hello all,

Been happily experimenting away with my Picaxe for a little while now. Its a good bit of fun and so easy and 'accessible'.
However something seems to have changed in such a way that I can not seem to program my hardware anymore.

I'm getting an "Error - Hardware not found on COMx" error for the past couple of days.

Now I've read posts before about resetting the chip and testing the connection. However I've tried those kind of suggestions and find the problem doesn't appear to be in any of those areas.
In fact if I take the cable (axe027) and original rev-ed projectboard to my office, hook it up and start the software everyhting is just working fine.

I haven't changed anything to my PC hardware/configuration. Software wise I can't think of anything either. In fact I dont remember installing any new software or drivers at all so that shouldn't have affected the situation.

My home PC is running on windows 7 x64, the workstation at my office is still at Xp x32.

The only thing odd that I can recall when I trace back is the following.
My PC at home (notebook) has got 3 USB ports to which I can connect the AXE027 cable adapter.
Installing the driver using the driver executable doesn't work under Win7x64 however after unzipping and manually installing the driver through device manager worked just fine for me.
I do recall having issues in the past but then I'd connect to another USB port and all was well again.... for a little while.
Now it seems almost as if I've used all ports and things have quit working.
I tried uninstalling the drivers to start afresh but it didn't help.

Is there any known issues like this that i am not aware of or would anyone have a suggestion about what else I can try to get it going again ??

Thanks already,

Patrick

Error Hardware not found.jpg
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Welcome to the PICAXE forum.

This does seem to be a Windows / Driver issue if the same hardware is okay at work but not at home.

The first step is to see what ports are listed by Programming Editor using File -> Options -> Serial Port, which show up as "AXE027 PICAXE USB" and which are marked as "ready for use" or "not available".

Then, click "Show Port Help Tools" and click "Scan for USB Cable" to see what that says, then "Test Port" to see how it responds at the PICAXE end of things.
 
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pvdven777

New Member
Hello Hippy,

Thanks for your response. It does indeed smell like some kind of driver issue.
I had in fact already found my way into that particular bit of the software you mention and when I ran the test it would confirm that the cable is there.
Also I can see the 'ready for use' text follow along with every one of the 3 ports I plug the cable into.

I thought maybe it was a model setting issue or that the hardware required a reset but that didn't turn out to solve my problems.
Ocne I get home just now I'll try to run through everything once more anyway. It never hurts to do that.

I haven't tried the one test where you're supposed to measure the voltage on the cable but since everything is working fine on another computer I doubt that I will find anything odd here either. Still, I'll give that a go if I cant find any other clues.
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Incorrect model issues should be explicitly identified ( something like "You have 20X2 selected but an 08M in the hardware" ) so hardware not found really indicates a total lack of response by the PICAXE to a download request.

The Port Test is handy because it takes it one step further than knowing the Programming Editor can see the cable, that it can also communicate to the jack plug end. The serial loop-back test will also confirm that things can get back the other way.

On a reset, when power cycling for a Hard Reset, the timing can sometimes be a bit tricky to get right if not familiar with the process. Power-off, wait a few seconds, initiate the download, wait for the pop-up and "Connecting to hardware..." to appear at its top, then power-up the board.
 
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pvdven777

New Member
I have in fact tried that hardware reset function a few times. However I wasn't entirely sure if I was doing it right in the first place.
I am not sure I'm getting the right popup that you refer to. Not sure if its me not paying enough attention or if its a helpfull clue that points into some direction.
This reset 'trick' I will try again also later on based on your description. I'll also try to pay a bit more attention to whatever comes up on screen and let you know what happens.
 
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IronJungle

Senior Member
For what it's worth.... I have a Dell laptop that has a few USB ports. For reasons I could never figure out, I could only get the PICAXE cable to work when it is plugged into the upper port on the right hand side. I didn't put much effort in to solving the issue, I just use the USB port that works and move on.

My point is, if you got the PICAXE cable to work in a particular USB port you may find it easier if you always stick to that USB port.

Maybe that helps (maybe not).
 
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