Serial port grayed out in Arduino IDE

Community General Discussions
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I just purchased a Red Back Dagu Spider board and a hexapod kit.  But when I plug it into the USB, the serial port on the Arduino IDE is grayed out so I cannot upload any porgrams.  I've tried two different cables.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

 

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details

Thanks for responding.   I am using Windows 8.1 on a 64 bit machine.  My Spider controller has the 2560 chip on it.  I’ve tried selecting both the Mega 2560 and 1280 boards.   Neither works.  I do see the FTDI chip on it.  What driver should I download?

Thanks again for your help!

Flav

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** Still learning to navigate this page**

 Still learning to navigate this page

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Making progress thanks to

Making progress thanks to 6677 and Oddbot.  I’ve downloaded several drivers from the FTDI site (not sure which driver to use).   The serial port (com6) now shows up in the Arduino IDE.  But when I try to uplaod a simpe (blink) sketch itmsays that COM6 is arlready in use.  nothing else but a bluetooth mouse is plugged in.  I’ve tried rebooting.  No dice.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Flav

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FTDI Bricking boards with counterfeit FTDI chips

OddBot,

have you seen this?

http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/

and

http://hackaday.com/2014/10/24/ftdi-screws-up-backs-down/

Basically FTDI has been bricking (disabling) boards that use a counterfeit FTDI chips. It seems some of the Spider boards (including the one I had) has had a counterfeit FTDI chip.  According to the Sparkfun technician, my Spider was bricked by the new FTDI driver.  Is there a way to get a spider controller that has been tested with the real FTDI chip in it? 

Flav