using a text editor. You can see the sketchbook location in the Arduino IDE preferences
dialog. The file you are looking for is part of the A-Star add-on.
4. In the boards.txt file that you opened, find the lines at the bottom of the file that start with
#a-star32U4bp
. Uncomment each of those lines by deleting the “#” character, and then save
the file.
5. Close the Arduino IDE and restart it.
6. In the “Tools” menu, open the “Board” sub-menu and select “Pololu A-Star 32U4 (bootloader
port)”. This entry is configured so that the Arduino IDE will send programming commands
directly to selected serial port, instead of trying to send a special USB command to the port
to get it into bootloader mode and then waiting for the new port to appear. By selecting this
entry, the timing of the programming process below becomes easier, especially on Windows.
7. Prepare the computer to show you a list of its virtual serial ports. If you are using Windows,
this means you should open the Device Manager. If you are on Linux or Mac OS X, this
means you should open a Terminal and type the command
ls /dev/tty*
but do not press
enter until the board is in bootloader mode in the next step.
8. Reset the board twice to get the board into bootloader mode. While it is in bootloader mode,
quickly look at the list of serial ports provided by your operating system in order to determine
what port the bootloader is assigned to.
9. Reset the board twice to get the board into bootloader mode again. While the board is in
bootloader mode, quickly select the serial port of the bootloader in the Arduino IDE. The port
can be selected in the “Port” sub-menu under “Tools”.
10. In the Arduino IDE, click the “Verify” button to compile your sketch. This could make the timing
easier during the next step.
11. Press the reset button twice to get the board into bootloader mode again. As soon as you
see the yellow LED fading in and out, press the Upload button.
The Arduino IDE will compile your sketch and then upload it to the selected serial port.
If the compilation of the sketch takes longer than 8 seconds, then this procedure will fail because the
bootloader will time out and start trying to run the malfunctioning sketch again. If that happens, try the
procedure again using a simpler sketch such as the Blink example that can be found under
File >
Examples > 01.Basics > Blink
.
After reviving your device, be sure to change the Board setting back to “Pololu A-Star 32U4” and select
the right Port.
10.2. Reviving using AVRDUDE
This section explains a special method for reviving an A-Star (or another of our 32U4 family of boards)
Pololu Balboa 32U4 Balancing Robot User’s Guide
© 2001–2019 Pololu Corporation
10. Reviving an unresponsive Balboa 32U4
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