Programming the A-Star 32U4 from the
Arduino IDE.
COM port details
After installing the drivers and plugging in an A-Star, in the “Ports (COM & LPT)” category of the Device
Manager, you should see a COM port for the A-Star’s running sketch named “Pololu A-Star 32U4”.
You might see that the COM port is named “USB Serial Device” in the Device Manager instead of
having a descriptive name. This can happen if you are using Windows 10 or later and you plugged
the A-Star into your computer before installing our drivers for it. In that case, Windows will set up your
A-Star using the default Windows serial driver (usbser.inf), and it will display “USB Serial Device” as
the name for the port. The port will still be usable, but it will be hard to tell if it is the right one because
of the generic name shown in the Device Manager. We recommend fixing the names in the Device
Manager by right-clicking on each “USB Serial Device” entry, selecting “Update Driver Software…”,
and then selecting “Search automatically for updated driver software”. Windows should find the drivers
you already installed, which contain the correct name for the port.
If you are using Windows 10 or later and choose not to install the drivers, the A-Star will still be
usable. To tell which “USB Serial Device” in your Device Manager is the A-Star, double-click on each
one and look at the “Hardware Ids” property in the “Details” tab. An A-Star running a sketch will
have the ID
USB\VID_1FFB&PID_2300&MI_00
, while an A-Star in bootloader mode will have the ID
USB\
VID_1FFB&PID_0101
.
If you want to change the COM port numbers assigned to your A-Star, you can do so using the Device
Manager. Double-click a COM port to open its properties dialog, and click the “Advanced…” button in
the “Port Settings” tab.
5.2. Programming using the Arduino IDE
Our 32U4 family of boards can be programmed from the
popular Arduino integrated development environment
(IDE). The Arduino IDE is a cross-platform, open source
application that integrates a C++ code editor, the GNU
C++ compiler, and a program upload utility. To get started
programming your device with the Arduino IDE (version
1.6.4 or later), follow these steps:
Download the Arduino IDE from the
[http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software]
, install it, and start
it.
1. In the Arduino IDE, open the
File
menu
(Windows/Linux)
or
the
Arduino
menu
(macOS) and select “Preferences”.
Pololu Balboa 32U4 Balancing Robot User’s Guide
© 2001–2019 Pololu Corporation
5. Programming the Balboa 32U4
Page 69 of 97
