MobiFlight Community Support

Hello Everyone,
When I start my Flightsim PC with my Mobiboard connected and I start Mobiflight Connector (version 7.3.2), the Mobiboard is not detected (Yellow ! in Module Status Info). However, looking in the configuration window the board is detected and recognized by Windows (as USB serial CH340 (COM 14)).
I have to disconnect the USB connection of the module, reconnect it and after a restart of MF connector the board is recognized and is functioning as advertised (I use it to control several LED indicators on the pedestal).
As I don't like to open each time my pedestal, disconnect en reconnect the module and close the pedestal again: has somebody a suggestion how to solve this?
BTW: The module is external powered with 9V.

Regards, Hans

Hi Hans,

did you connect the mobiboard before you start MF?

The order is significant

If i understand right he have the board connected on USB all the time ( Already while starting the Computer ).

Stephan is basicly right..... Board needs to connect before Mobiflight Programm is started..... More accurate..... The Board need to be connected and checked by Windows.
On My System it takes 10-20 seconds until its ready..... So if i connect a board i need to wait this 10-20 Sec before i start Mobiflight. If i try to start direct after connecting the Board is not found !

Back to Topic.....
HansK..... What Board do you use ??? CH340 can be a MEGA,UNO or NANO i think.

If it´s a Uno there are a known Bug at the moment.... Please Note UNO Support is still in Beta status and not work 100% at the moment.....
Please look here..... https://www.mobiflight.com/forum/topic/649.html

If it´s a MEGA please confirm... Then we try to find the issue

Guys,
Thanks for the quick support!

Although the board has to control a limited number of inputs/outputs for stability reasons I choose for an Arduino Mega.

During the testing phase there was no problem because I connected the board to an USB port at the beginning of the testing and disconnected it when testing was finished.
Now the board is in an operational phase and mounted in the pedestal, the board is connected all the time to the PC.
So I think the order Stephan mentioned is correct.

One thing I have to check tomorrow (I am in bed now ) is the delaytime of about 10 - 20 seconds Pizman mentioned. I think I did but I am not sure.
I will start the PC, wait until Windows is loaded, look into the device manager if the board has been detected and then start MF connector.
I will report the results.

By the way.... In my situation ( with the 10-20 Seconds) a reconect of the Board is not needed.....

If i start Mobiflight to early after connect the board it is not detected like i told you.....
BUT:.
Then i simple close Mobiflight and start Mobiflight again..... THEN it´s connected already. ... So normaly you not need to reset the USB Wire.... Simple Restart the software.


Second thing....... I not understand why you have to "open" youre Pedestal... You know you can reconect a board on PC side too ?
You not need to reset the USB Wire on the Arduino side.... you can use the Side that is set in PC.. Even if you use a USB Hub..... Reconnect the hole Hub!..

Last..... Please tell us how many Arduinos you use in youre project and how you set youre external Power....
- Is it still on Power when you Boot youre PC ? ( Or do you power them shortly before starting Mobiflight )
- Is the Power ON all the time (even if the PC is off) Maby the Boards shut down if they powerd over hours and no cennection to Mobiflight.

I got no experience with external Power suply but maby advanced Users or Sebastian can help you here after you give more detailed informations.

First test this morning: PC start up from completely unpowered. Checked if the Arduino was detected in the device manager (it was) and then started MF Connector: no Modules.
So Windows recognised the board but MF didn't.
And Pizman, yes, you are right of course with the start/restart advise for MF connector. I already did that (I didn't mention it) but it makes no difference.

I did already several tests with the power: Board USB powered (1. Constantly on, even when the PC is off, 2: Switch the power completely off), External power 9V (Board is the only consumer for that PSU). Several tests to see if the moment of switching the power on for the board makes some difference but the result is still the same.

But I have some (probably) important information. Although in the Status Info of MF connector it is stated that no modules are detected (yellow triangle with !) I also looked in Settings/Mobiflight Modules. There an unknown module is mentioned and when I selected this module I got the following info:
Name: Default; Firmware: n/a, Port: Com14, Serial: n/a, Type: Arduino Mega. For me, as a newbie, it seems that the Arduino is detected but not as a Mobiboard.
When I reconnect the board to the USB the board is recognized by MF connector (Status info has a Green V for Modules) and the Mobiflight Modules window contains the following info:
Name: Mobiflight1 Pedestal, Firmware: 1.7.3, Port: COM14, Serial: SN-302-b57, Type: Mobiflight Mega.

Some additional requested info:
The reason I am opening the pedestal is that this is a quicker way for me to reconnect the Arduino then to go to the other side of the USB connection which is somewhere "down-under" and my body is no longer as flexible as 50 years ago, so.......

At this moment it is the only connected Arduino (more are in the planning and ordered). As soon I have the time I will connect another spare Mega (other manufacturer) I have to see if that one is working correct.

Thanks for all the advises.
Hans

OK.

Thanks for Information.

1. First thing that confusing me is youre quote ...

When I reconnect the board to the USB the board is recognized by MF connector (Status info has a Green V for Modules) and the Mobiflight Modules window contains the following info:
Name: Mobiflight1 Pedestal, Firmware: 1.7.3, Port: COM14, Serial: SN-302-b57, Type: Mobiflight Mega.

Do you reconnect youre board while Mobiflight is running ???
On My system a Board that will be set to USB WHILE Mobiflight is running this can´t detected. I always need to restart Mobiflight then.... Looks like Mobiflight at the moment only "see" Boards that still connected to USB BEFORE Programm is running.

2. Sorry that i ask again the same question..... Please confirm 100% you got a MEGA Board..... I´m NOT meaning how it shows in the Mobiflight Setting Tab..... I Mean the Board ITSELF .... The CH340 at the moment got a issue in Mobiflight.... whatever you have a UNO or a MEGA.... Both will be shown as MEGA at the moment. And Mobi try to sample the MEGA Firmware at the UNO too.... And this become the issue that UNO is not detected automaticly by Mobiflight.

3. Sebastian will see this Topic next days..... Shure he can give you a little status for this. Maby you find time to confirm this 2 facts again so he get all information that´s needed.

Thanks for youre help !

Hi Hans,

please ensure that your external Power Supply, the MEGA-Board and then PC are Ground connected, that means the Ground-Level (GND) of all connected units is the same!
If the board is connected without the correct ground-level the items won't talk together.

Another attempt should be to reset your MEGA after having it connected to your PC.

If these measures is not successfull, Pizman or Sebastian shoult try to solve it.

oops, little intersection

Gents,

Some answers:
@pizman:
1. Every time before I did a new test or a reconnect of the board I closed MF connector and after the new situation was stabilised I started MF connector again.
2. I confirm that the board I use is a Mega. As already stated, although the board has to control a limited number of inputs/outputs I learned from this forum that for stability reasons it is better to use a Mega board and so I did. I own Uno's too (do not use them in my flightsimulator) so I know the difference.

@Stephan:
A good suggestion but all power is correct connected (I studied electronics ), also demonstrated by Windows that doesn't have problems to detect the board: the Arduino is always visible in the device manager.
Use of the reset button: a good tip. I will test it and report the result.

And as promised: another test I will perform is replace my board by an other Arduino Mega from a different manufacturer and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks for all the support and tips. I will keep you informed.

Gr. Hans

Hi Hans,

all fine! I have to ask those questions because I want to know which experience level you have. I have an education in telecommunication channels and know that a lot of things might not be assumed. And you can't think so dully like things can happen especially if you even build quick and dirty ( ), not finally.

I often use the reset-button of the MEGA after refreshing the MF-Firmware. Sometimes it happend that i.e. LEDs lighted only with 20% Power after a refresh (don't know why) and pushing the reset-button they shined with 100%. It seems that a reset is not a new connection for MF because MF then also works fine thereafter.

I think there is no difference using a branded board or a low-cost-board from the friendly chinese neighbor But there is a difference in the price. Branded board for 34,90€ or 9,95€ for a chinese clone relating to a MEGA.

Whish you a lot of success with your tests.

I think there is no difference using a branded board or a low-cost-board from the friendly chinese neighbor But there is a difference in the price. Branded board for 34,90€ or 9,95€ for a chinese clone relating to a MEGA.

Thats NOT 100% Correct.....

The chinese Clones normaly work fine ( I think 9 of 10 users here got chinese Boards) . The big difference..... They use not Original MEGA Chips. So Mobiflight need to indent different chips and need to know if its a Mega, Uno or maby a USB Element like a Mouse that isn´t a Microcontroller etc......
If all People would use only the original Arduino Mega then one Code Line would be enough.... Otherwise we need 20,30 or more different code logics to "see" the Board.

Again Normaly thats no problem and work fine..... but special the CH340 sucks a bit. ( Cause a UNO got the same chip)
I´m pritty shure if he use a other board without the CH340 Chipset then it workes perfect for him.
But this is not the solution..... I Hope Sebastian own a CH340 Mega an can reproduce and fix the Problem at all.
Please stay patient.... If it´s just a little issue that will be patched next release.

PS. And sorry for my double question about the board.... As Stephan say.... we don´t know the experience of the Users.... Here are lot´s of beginners, they don´t know the difference between a UNO and a MEGA.... We need to get shure you know what you do ! My apology for that !

Back again……

First: I very appreciate both your help and support!!!! There are no stupid questions and I fully understand that your raised them. And better the same question double or triple then not

Test results:
1. Use of the reset button: Makes no difference.
2. I passed the USB Hub in the pedestal and connected the board with a short USB cable direct to an USB port in my PC: No effect.
3. My Arduino's are all (very cheap ) Chinese clones, however not all are from the same manufacturer.
Today I connected them all one by one to my PC to see which chipset was used: all were recognised by Windows as CH340!
4. I uninstalled the Arduino Mega board in the Pedestall and replaced it by another board. MF Connector recognised it as a Arduino MEGA (which was correct). I uploaded the firmware and the correct configuration and switched my PC off (all power off). Then a restart of PC and MF Connector and…….. the board was recognised as a Mobiboard and functions well. I restarted the PC several times: no problems. So I hope that the problem has been solved.
5. Having said that I still have at least one board with doesn't function correctly. As stated before: the board is recognised in the windows device manger but not by Mobiflight as a Mobiboard.
This afternoon I remembered that some weeks ago when I entered the world of Mobiflight I used this board and had some troubles: Mobiflight recognised this board as an UNO, but it is a MEGA! I dropped my problem on this forum, see https://www.mobiflight.com/forum/message/3808.html. That problem was solved by using an external loader for the firmware but probably still has to do with the problem I have with this board now (just a suggestion).

For now I will leave it as it is and see if this is a stable configuration. I hope someone (Sebastian??) has a solution for my "problem" Arduino because I know from this forum that I am not the only one where Mobiflight recognised a Mega as an Uno.

Pizman and Stephan, thanks for all the help so far.

Gr. Hans

Hi Hans,

great that all works fine now!
It maybe that the MEGA you used before is a bit buggy and get out of the line. With a MEGA I didn't have had problems so far. Only with my UNOs. But since the firmware for the UNO is soon a bit buggy I did not use them.
Wish you a lot of fun with your configuration!

Ok... Now we get closer to the real problem.

I´m sorry i not remeber the linked thread..... i see i was in Holliday in the caribeean, domonican Repuplic at this time.

At this time of youre linked thread UNO Support was brand new and Sebastian not knows that UNO and MEGA got same ID and Chip.....
As you describe this time all Megas was shown like UNOS and firmware update was not posible.
After he explore this he decide to use CH340 in Mobiflight for Mega ! ( Cause most users have Mega instead of Uno)

Today the Situation is inverted.... Now all CH340 -UNO User got the Problem that there Board is wrong shown as a Mega and the have to use XLoader for that.



Now to youre Problem!
Maby the Manual Upload "kill" something in the Code so Mobiflight not be able to autoscan it when it´s already booted while System Start.

Simply Workaround.....
Clear the Board ( Install the original Arduino IDE and delete so the Mobiflight Firmware you upload manualy )
THEN Reinstall it and let Mobiflight itself now detect it as a Mega ( should now be posible) and let Mobiflight upload the firmware !
Make Youre Setup
And Now restart youre System and try if Board is detected as it should !

*****************
If this Helps... Problem solved.... If Not please give Sebastian the complete Data for this Board ( PID Manifactur and so on )