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Problem

I have an Arduino Nano connected via a USB cable (Type A to Mini Type B) to my MacBook Air (Mid 2013 Model). The PWR LED is on while the arduino is connected.

Opening the Arduino software, pulling down the Tools > Serial Port menu does not show me a valid serial port. All I see is:

/dev/tty.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-Modem
/dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem

What I've tried and did not work

  • I have installed the correct FTDI driver (v2.2.18). x64 for my MacBook Air's Corei5, file FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6_10_7.mpkg. Restarted after installation.

  • Tried connecting arduino to both USB ports on my Air.

More Info

  • Running Mac OSX 10.10 Yosemite
  • Same arduino and cable work when connected to a Windows machine or a Raspberry Pi.

If it helps, I can see the USB Serial in my Apple Logo > About This Mac > System Report under Hardware > USB

USB2.0-Serial:

  Product ID:               0x7523
  Vendor ID:                0x1a86
  Version:                  2.54
  Speed:                    Up to 12 Mb/sec
  Location ID:              0x14100000 / 8
  Current Available (mA):   500
  Current Required (mA):    Unknown (Device has not been configured)

I'm out of ideas and options. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance :)

Mecha
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  • Is your nano a clone or a real nano? – PhillyNJ Nov 22 '14 at 12:09
  • It's a clone. Thought I've read that it's a real good one. Anyway, I found something that solved it for me. Going to put it as an answer. – Mecha Nov 22 '14 at 12:36
  • Did you have it plugged into a Windows machine first or before you plug it into your Mac?it might've been bricked but the good news is you can unbrick it. – PhillyNJ Nov 22 '14 at 13:09
  • First time I tried it on my Windows. But it turns out that I needed some additional driver for Mac. See my answer. – Mecha Nov 22 '14 at 13:13

1 Answers1

13

This solved it for me.

  • Download this driver
  • Install it
  • Run sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"
  • Reboot

Serial ports now showed up in the Arduino IDE and also when I used ls -1 /dev/tty*

Hopes this helps someone.

Reference: This thread

SoreDakeNoKoto
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Mecha
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    I have the same problem and using your link solves my problem. Thanks for sharing the information. Best Regards, Jo –  Dec 16 '14 at 15:37
  • Runs!!! Thanks a lot (Macbook pro retina late 2012 - OSX 10.1.1) –  Jan 13 '15 at 20:24
  • Thanks for this answer. This fixed my problem as well. Setup: Yosemite, 10.10.5 and this arduino uno clone: AVR-Duino / Mega 2560 UNO – Moszi Aug 17 '15 at 13:37
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    On 2016-04-13, I downloaded the (version 1.2?, dated 2015-11-19?) driver from there, did the required reboot, and did not need to do the unsigned driver kext setting. On plugging it in, the device showed up as '/dev/cu.wchusbserialfa130' in Arduino/Tools/Port. – Dave X Apr 13 '16 at 17:31
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    Please update your answer to reflect the fact that it's not longer necessary to tinker with the OS X kernel to allow unsigned drivers to be loaded in kernel space which is a gigantic security risk. Latest OS X recognises these vendor and product IDs correctly, without the need to install any drivers. Product ID: 0x7523, Vendor ID: 0x1a86. – Paul-Sebastian Manole Apr 27 '16 at 11:07
  • Oh and the unsigned kext setting is not needed anymore because this chip is widely used by Arduino and other embedded boards. [Read more...](http://blog.codebender.cc/2015/12/22/updated-drivers-for-ch34x-chips-in-osx/) – Paul-Sebastian Manole Apr 27 '16 at 11:18
  • @Paul-SebastianManole - please post your *own* answer, pointing this out. References to supporting information would help. For example, what is "Latest OS/X" exactly? Reading that I don't know if I have the latest or not. And certainly in 5 years time people will wonder. Something better would be: "OS/X version 10.8.6 onwards supports this ..." (or whatever version it is). – Nick Gammon Apr 27 '16 at 21:49
  • @NickGammon can't you read dates? How many major version updates of OS X does apple put out in a year? Besides, my answer would be the same except that little bit of information I added. And I did post a reference. – Paul-Sebastian Manole Apr 27 '16 at 23:01
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    Yes, I am familiar with dates. For a novice, it isn't obvious which part of the answer is tinkering with the OS/X kernel, and which part isn't. I suggest you post your improved answer. – Nick Gammon Apr 28 '16 at 10:45
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    Beware! Kernel Panic! on macOS Sierra, as of 25th September, 2016. – Pankaj Jangid Sep 25 '16 at 14:29
  • @Paul-SebastianManole - device is not recognized by El Capitan (10.11.6; newest this ancient MacBook supports in Oct 2016) and drivers still need to be installed. – scruss Oct 11 '16 at 19:46
  • @Jangid didn't see your message before installing. What did you do to fix the problem? – gfpacheco Dec 14 '16 at 16:28
  • To those wondering: I fixed the kernel panic on macOS Sierra with this: https://www.simplicate.info/2016/09/16/ch340-drama-osx-10-12-sierra-16a313a/ – gfpacheco Dec 14 '16 at 16:48