Question Arduino uno miscommunication

I recently purchased a mantis FS2 simulator it uses an arduino uno to run the motors. When I plug the ard in it populates the interface settings correctly (or atleast i assume correctly). but upon entering the test settings page i receive an error message in the log of unable to start interface 1. the motors can be turned via the two small pot gears manually, so i know the motors are good


i have double double triple checked all my wiring against the wiring diagram i was provided with and all is correct there, tried multiple different usb cables and different usb ports on my pc.

i would guess that this means there is some kind of communication error between my pc and the ard uno that is keeping the board from controlling the pots. but im kinda at my limit for knowledge at this point.

wiring diagram incase its helpful

Sounds like a communication error between the arduino and your PC as you have surmised. Does the Mantis come with some software or a setup program to populate the correct information into the interface settings with regards to the COM port and Output string? The first thing I would look at is to make sure the COM port is correct and you don't have another program running that may be interfering such as Simhub.

Yes actually its a repo on sim tools and autopopulates all of the fields. I have actually uninstalled sim hub before i started this process, so unfortunately thats not the culprit. I have confirmed my device manager that the com port shown in the image matches what is shown in device manager as well.

Im no genius when i comes to arduinos, but, i have been researching all i can, and the best i can think of is that there may be some sort of programming/coding error that has occured or potentially the physical atmu mega chip is damaged? correct me if im wrong but this is the bit that allows your pc to communicate with the board yes?

as another side note i have installed arduino ide 2.2.1 and opening it up, i can see and select my ard uno on the correct COM, however when i attempt to do anything with the chip i get this error message. it seems as if my ard can send but not recieve data.


btw happy new year

Try first with SMC 3 Utils before testing it in simtools

SMC3 is also unable to connect to the board, i beleive the ard is toast

Does it at least pass the blink test ?

UPdate. everything works fine on a different pc.

maybe a windows reinstall on current pc?

will try another fresh install of sim tools on current pc as well

Additional update.

Fresh install of windows did nothing.

my brain hurts

Sound like an USB port problem. Have you try another USB port ? since many USB port of your PC is wired to the same port on the mother board try the other linked to the other port. does the device manager see the arduino under PORT COM and LTP ?

big news, apparently windows released an update that breaks the latest ch340 drivers, i went into
simhub>arduino>myhardware
and theres a red notification that says click here to install the older drivers