My (new) BlueNRG-LP STEVAL-IBD011V2 evaluation board is no longer recognized by MS-Windows Device manager when I plug into the USB port. How can I recover this functionality?

[JWill.8]

Background:

I have two STEVAL-IDB011V2 BlueNRG-LP boards. One of these evaluation boards is no longer recognized by MS Windows10 host machine at the serial port (i.e. Device Manager shows a problem with that USB device). As a result, the ST RF-Flash Utility (in fact, all of the ST Micro development software) cannot communicate with this board. Thus I have no easy way to reflash the firmware on this board.

The last firmware I loaded on the malfunctioning board still communicates with my cell phone over BLE, so the Cortex M0 and BLE stack seem to be intact. However, it appears the circuitry associated with the UART is unhappy.

The second evaluation board I have (identical hardware to the one that is malfunctioning) is recognized fine by the Windows10 host machine.

Questions:

• Is there a way to recover the board, or am I going to have to purchase a new one?
• Has anyone seen this type of behavior in the past and how do I avoid this in the future?

Thanks for any help or recommendations you can give me.

Jeff

[Kamal]

Hello Jeff.

As you are able to use one of the available STEVAL-IBD011V2 evaluation board Indicating drivers are properly working. I hope you have already tried to use the USB cable working with second board. If not done please check. Seems some issue with the USB connectivity or connector.

[JWill.8]

Hi Kamal,

Thank you for your response. Good suggestion, as I have often been burned by bad cable connections in other situations. However, I had already tried all combinations of the two cables that came with the two boards (i.e., where a=[Malfunctioning Board] b=[Questionable cable] c=[Working board] d=[working cable] : I tried ab, ad, cb, cd. Combination cb and cd work whereas combination ab and ad do not.

I am concerned the USB CMSIS-DAP program/debug channel and serial bridge circuitry on the board are somehow compromised...

Regards,

Jeff

[JWill.8]

Despite numerous attempts, I am still unable to access the USB serial port of this BlueNRG-LP development board. The board does boot and responds to the ST BLE toolbox Android application but fails to correctly initialize where Windows Device Manager recognizes the device. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to what I might try and has this happened to anyone else?

[JWill.8 · Accepted solution]

It was determined this was a bad board.