Windows drivers for serial / bootloader interface

[bigg]

I'm trying out the Pinguino Micro boards for the first time and I am really struggling to understand what needs to be done regarding Windows (Vista 32bit) drivers due to lack of documentation and the problems I am encountering.

For IDE I started with Pinguino. I followed documentation and used LibUSB-Win32 utility to create a driver to upload programs when I put the device into bootloader mode. Had no problems uploading and made the device blink etc. However I soon discovered I was not able to see a com port when in normal mode when using putty/termite rs232 serial interface programs. This perplexed me somewhat.

I decided to start afresh and downloaded MPIDE onto computer. Updated hardware listings according to video/documentation found on Olimex, but now even more perplexed as what to do next as video/documentation just assumes all things will work when I plug in a USB cable. Unfortunately in my case I still do not see a com port on my computer when I plug device into USB cable (it's powered on at least). I also could not find any documentation explaining the bootloader process.... am I to use LibUSB-Win32 again to create a bootloader driver or not as nothing is explained in any documentation relating to MPIDE.

So not sure what to do next in terms of getting my computer to recognise the Pinguino micro when I plug in the USB cable. Something has gone wrong.

Any ideas on what to do will be greatly appreciated.

[JohnS]

If you didn't overwrite the bootloader using MPIDE then at least you can use the board still via pinguino.

There's only a (USB) COM port if your user code makes one.  There are examples showing it.

(And no port when in upload mode as it's waiting to get uploaded packets.)

John