Unable to connect Thumby

[flandry19]

Hi,

I purchased a Thumby, but have been unable to connect it to either a windows 8 PC or a windows 7 PC.  I have read the FAQ at https://thumby.us/FAQ/ and have followed the instructions there.  I know that it is not the cable, as I am able to load/see the directory/device when I turn the Thumby on in USB flashdrive mode (I find exactly two files in the loaded dirive when turn on the Thumby with down arrow pressed).

Thumby's power is on, the cable is connected, I can see the "start" game select menu on the Thumby, but the Zadig driver loader doesn't find it at all.  Ie, it shows "no devices found", the upper pulldown is empty.  I have tried earlier versions of Zadig with no difference.  The Device Manager says "unknown USB-device", and I know that is the active one because it disappears if I unplug the Thumby (or if I turn the Thumby off). 

I have tried loading the device driver anyway, restarting the PC and/or all connected devices in various sequences -- no change.  Does not seem to matter what PC I use either.  Is it just bad firmware on the Thumby?  Something I am missing?  How do I even diagnose this?

Anyone have any suggestions aside from telling me that I have just bad luck?

Thanks,
Forrest

[Jason]

Hi,

I purchased a Thumby, but have been unable to connect it to either a windows 8 PC or a windows 7 PC.  I have read the FAQ at https://thumby.us/FAQ/ and have followed the instructions there.  I know that it is not the cable, as I am able to load/see the directory/device when I turn the Thumby on in USB flashdrive mode (I find exactly two files in the loaded dirive when turn on the Thumby with down arrow pressed).

Thumby's power is on, the cable is connected, I can see the "start" game select menu on the Thumby, but the Zadig driver loader doesn't find it at all.  Ie, it shows "no devices found", the upper pulldown is empty.  I have tried earlier versions of Zadig with no difference.  The Device Manager says "unknown USB-device", and I know that is the active one because it disappears if I unplug the Thumby (or if I turn the Thumby off). 

I have tried loading the device driver anyway, restarting the PC and/or all connected devices in various sequences -- no change.  Does not seem to matter what PC I use either.  Is it just bad firmware on the Thumby?  Something I am missing?  How do I even diagnose this?

Anyone have any suggestions aside from telling me that I have just bad luck?

Thanks,
Forrest

I don't think this would be a firmware issue. Thumby uses MicroPython as its base firmware, which is a commonly by a lot of other devices/users. All we added were Python files for game launching, settings, etc.

Searching Google for "zadig not finding device" results in:

"Check your computer's Device Manager (if using Windows) to make sure that the computer sees the device is plugged in. The name of the device will often be "Unidentified USB device". Go back to Zadig, click on the "Options" menu, and make sure there is a check-mark next to "List All Devices""

You could try giving that a try to try and get the Thumby to show up in Zadig.

Let me know if that doesn't work, we'll figure it out.

Thanks

[flandry19]

Hi Jason,

Yes, windows does see an "unknown device" in the device manager, even though Zadig shows "zero devices found".  And the unknown device goes away if I turn off or unplug the Thumby, and re-appears if I plug it in again.

However, it does seem that installing the device driver blind did at least help.
Restarting the computer and letting it sit for four hours, and then trying again, I managed to find a combination sequence that worked *once* for *one* file transfer.  If I turn on the Thumby, let it go through to the menu, and then actually down arrow to show the next page, and then connect the USB cable, it did allow the editor to connect once.  The device manager will this time show the device as COM3.  Unfortunately, after moving one file, then no more transfers, nor could I disconnect and re-connect the Thumby.  And the Device Manager shows "unknown device" again.

So far, it seems I have to completely close the browser, and then completely disconnect, power cycle the thumby, let it go through its menu, down arrow to select next page, then connect the USB, and then restart the browser, will get me *one* more file transfer, before it quits again.   If it is done any other way, I get a windows message about "unrecognized device" and of course, it does not work.  Even after all of this, Zadig still does not find the Thumby.

Clearly something is wrong -- this sequence seems way more cumbersome than it probably should be.

Any ideas?

Forrest

[Jason]

That is more cumbersome than it should be.

You can try updating Thumby's firmware by following the steps outlined here: https://thumby.us/FAQ/#:~:text=Lastly%2C%20you%20can%20try%20reloading%20the%20most%20recent%20firmware%20version%3A (this will delete all the files you've uploaded).

[flandry19]

As it happens, I was purchasing a new PC which came with a stock install of win11 already pre-installed (which I truly detest -- windows sends everything to themselves, treats users and their devices as their property, etc).  However, the Thumby connect seems to work fine on that os version.  I figure that there is some problem with the OS version, though I was unable to get it to connect at all on a windows 8.1 version -- though I have not tried all possible sequences yet.

Is there a chance that the firmware became less compatable with pre win10 OS vresions?  Can I get for test some earlier firmware releases?  Is the source code for the firmware available somewhere?

[Jason]

The firmware is MicroPython, which we haven't modified for Thumby. The latest version that Thumby uses is 1.19.1 downloadable here: https://micropython.org/download/rp2-pico/

The Python files that we made for Thumby are available here: https://github.com/TinyCircuits/TinyCircuits-Thumby-Code-Editor/tree/master/ThumbyGames