Help please. I'm a newbie and already need help getting started.

@fishbone Are you sure your USB cable is a data cable, all 4 pins wired thru, or just a power cable with the 2 outer pins connected only. Just stick a meter probe in the middle, it doesn't matter if you short the 2 data pins, then stick the other meter lead in the middle of the other end as best you can. A beep (assuming you have a continuity tester - very needed when working with MPU's and MCU's) a beep means ok.

@zander O.K.  It is working, but kindof wonkey.  First I want to thank you for all the help.  You were nice to hang with me.  Let me explain what I did. 

On the Adafruit website for this board is a section that talks about A UF2 bootloader and how to factory reset.  I followed the steps and saw what I did when I first connected the device.  It was the bootloader connecting as a drive. 

Anyway while looking at this info I found this on AdaFruit Website: 

Modern chips often have 'native' USB - that means that there is no separate chip for USB interface. It's all in one! Great for cost savings, simplicity of design, reduced size and more control. However, it means the chip must be self-aware enough to be able to put itself into bootload/upload mode on its own. That's fine 99% of the time but is very likely you will at some point get the board into an odd state that makes it too confused to bootload.

To enter the bootloader:

1. Press and hold the Boot button down. Don't let go of it yet!
2. Press and release the Reset button. You should still have the Boot button pressed while you do this.
3. Now you can release the Boot button.

When I did this, COM4 appeared and it loaded my sketch to via COM4.  However, to execute the sketch, I have to hit the RESET on the board and it immediately connects to the pc via the serial port to COM5.  If I try to then upload a new sketch, it wont work.  I have to reset the bootloader again and using the process above and it goes back to COM4.  This is annoying, but not terrible.  Anyway, I'll keep at it...but thank you again, Sir!

Mark

@fishbone That sounds similar to the procedure for the new Pi PICOW. Are you doing this in the arduino IDE or the python IDE?

@zander It works using the the same procedure in both the Arduino IDE and PlatformIO using Arduino framework.

@fishbone It sounds very similar to the new PICO procedure. Can you post a link to the page you found the information on.

@zander https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt-py-esp32-s3/arduino-neopixel-blink

This is a walkthrough of the first example

@fishbone That is the first time I have heard of this procedure. I think it says you only need to do it once then it should be good unless you break or intentionally change the bootloader. In any case, I assume all is well now?

Posted by: @zander

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@fishbone That sounds similar to the procedure for the new Pi PICOW. Are you doing this in the arduino IDE or the python IDE?

All the Rpi Pico range use the uf2 file to communicate. Arduino can send a uf2 containing Arduino C code to the Pico.

I've never come across uf2 anywhere else but I have never used any IDE other than Arduino and Thonny.

I do have some ESP32 modules that will not program via Arduino unless I HOLD down the program button while it is trying to connect to the ESP. Very strange. Most of the ESPs just program without button press.

Posted by: @fishbone

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@zander  I have tried pressing BOOT.  I have tried pressing RESET.

HOLD down the boot switch until you see the screen saying  10%....  12%......

Holding reset will just stop all ESP activity.

@hilldweller I thought it was the chip that is doing the USB function that determined if the BOOT button needed to be pressed.

Posted by: @zander

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@hilldweller I thought it was the chip that is doing the USB function that determined if the BOOT button needed to be pressed.

I'm not sure if it is the chip or how they wire the chip up. It seems that some modules wire a USB chip output to press the boot button. The one I have a problem with is the one inch wide 38 pin ESP32 modules that are good value with no shortage of pins. Wiring a switch from GPIO 0 to ground is a cure if the chip is difficult to get to.

Agree with the article says this should only need be done on occasion.  Could be an issue with the COM ports on my side and this is just a work-around.

@fishbone I think this is the answer to your problem

@zander Did you mean you think the answer is something with the way Windows is managing my COM ports?

@fishbone Sorry I forgot the link. Here it is, it's a well known problem.

https://forum.dronebotworkshop.com/postid/37649/