I recently purchased an Arduino Pro Mini 5V and needed to connect it to my computer. I had contacted staff and they told me to purchase the SparkFun FTDI Starter Kit - 5V. It arrived today and I am having quite a few issues(I am very new to all of this). Firstly, I was given a black cord to connect and a little red rectangle(pictured). The side of the cord that is meant to fit in the red thing does not, I have tried and have not been successful. Am I doing something wrong or missing something? Secondly, I have absolutely no clue as to how I am supposed to connect it all to my Pro Mini in order to connect it to my laptop to upload code.
Hi Drxwboii
That is certainly the wrong connector. You will need to be sent the correct one. If you purchased this from Core I am sure they will fix this.
Your Pro Mini. You should have been sent a 6 pin header with that Mini. This has to be soldered into the 6 holes at one end. I found it more convenient to fit this long end up, that is long end of the pins on the component side. This FTDI adaptor plugs onto that. There is a 6 pin female connector fitted on the other end to the USB connector. Be careful to fit this the correct way around. The FTDI thing is marked as is the Mini board and you need to match up the functions. They are in the same order if the connector is the correct way around. You will probably need a magnifying glass for this as the writing is pretty small.
I have one of these driving XMAS lights. A great little board and very small footprint.
Cheers Bob
Add on
If the pin header is mounted long pins up the FTDI adaptor should plug in with the component sides “facing” The both boards are marked “GRN” and BLK" on the end pins and MUST be plugged in correctly. I don.t know if there is any reverse voltage protection on the Mini Pro but if the boards are reversed you stand the risk of smoke.
I have just Recieved my cable to upload the code to my Arduino pro mini and need help. I keep getting error messages and am not sure what to do! I’ve attached some images to help understand my problem.
Hi
You have soldered the 6 pin header to the wrong place. It goes into the 6 pin positions across the smaller end of the board where you have “GRN” and “BLK” marked on the 2 end pins.
I don’t know what damage you might have done by applying 5V and Gnd to the wrong pins. With a bit of luck none.
Have you actually soldered those pins. It doesn’t look like it. If you have you had better try a bit better. They will have to be soldered to get a reliable connection otherwise you finish up with 6 unknowns and potentially 6 headaches and finish up going in circles.
If you use a pair of cutters you can cut 6 pins off that strip. You don’t have to use the whole length.
Cheers Bob
Once you’ve finished soldering your programming header on, send us a photo of how you’ve got everything set up (and your Arduino IDE programming settings) and we’ll make sure everything’s right.
Yes
If you only have a low wattage iron solder the end pins on the strips first to hold them in place then carefully remove from that plug in board and connector to solder the rest. This is to remove the heat sinking effect of the pins plugged into connector/board.
Cheers Bob
Were you using the 5V or 3.3V version of the Pro mini? If it’s 5V you may have to cut and solder a jumper on the bottom of the programmer (more info in the above guide)
Hi Drxwboii
Ignore reference to 3.3V. You already said you have a 5V ProMini (I think James missed that in your earlier post) and that little orange board defaults to 5V so you should be all good.
The ProMini comes in 5V and 3.3V and the orange board is selectable which can possibly be confusing but you can ignore this.
Cheers Bob
What process did you use to select the port? For instance, did it appear in the list of ports with the name of the programmer board, or did you check that it appeared as a serial port in Device Manager when you plugged the programmer in, or some other procedure?
