I am experiencing wildly inconsistent, unstable and irreproducable problems with leafLabs' IDE, even running under Windows XP SP3 -- instead of Win7.
Frankly, what pisses me off the most is that I went considerably out of my way to buy a whole, separate WinXP machine (instead of my laptop), in an attempt to be able to develop for my Maple boards (one Maple R5 and two Maple minis.) From the last two day's one step forward, two steps back, I am beginning to wonder about the overall usability of leafLab's products and their commitment to fix software that frequently malfunctions on the most popular O/Ss used in the US (where leafLabs is located.)
Over the last two days, I have un-installed, re-installed and tried running sketches unmodified from the Maple example directory. The problems seem to be associated with (guess what?) the drivers -- and a possible flaw in leafLabs' port of the Arduino IDE. I have marked one USB port for use with my Maples, and leave the USB cable plugged in always. (Apparently Windows is not smart about seeing the same device on different physical USB port on the host. However, I've addressed that by reserving one specific USB jack, and leaving the USB cable for my Maples plugged into that.
Here's the kicker:
1. Sometimes, I get pop-up windows from WinXP saying "USB Device Not Recognized." But other times, I do not, with no apparent pattern, rhyme or reason.
2. If leafLabs has documented how to un-install their two drivers, so they can be re-installed cleanly, I haven't found it.
3. Even when the WinXP device manager sees my Maple as a serial device "Maple R3 (COM3)" very often, the leafLabs' IDE DOES NOT SHOW THAT PORT AT ALL!How can I FORCE the leafLabs' IDE to re-scan for changes in devices?!?! Even rebooting the entire machine hasn't reliably fixed the "IDE is blind to USB hardware clearly seen by the Windows Device manager problem" -- not even for an O/S version that they claim to support!
Sometimes the Maple IDE shows Com 1 and Com 3, sometimes either Com1 or Com 3, and most often only Com1 -- WHICH DOES NOT REALLY EXIST! At the same time, the device manager sees COM3 and even labels it as "Maple R3 (COM3)"
Restarting the Maple IDE doesn't reliably fix this "I no longer see your serial device" problem.
Restarting the WinXP machine doesn't reliably fix this
Uninstalling leafLabs' software for Windows, rebooting and re-installing it DOES NOT RELIABLY FIX THIS!
Please, please give us a reliable means of getting your software to see what the O/S clearly sees re USB devices!
I would like to use leafLabs' products, really. I also understand that supporting multiple platforms is difficult. But if you cannot really support Windows, either XP or Win7 -- and don't have a timetable for when Maple's software will be reliable under the most popular O/Ss used in the US, YOU OUGHT TO STATE THAT LIMITATION CLEARLY AND UP FRONT, so prospective users won't waste lots of their time and money chasing a mirage.
Secondly, if there is a procedure to un-install leafLab's serial and dfu drivers, it would be helpful for you to DOCUMENT THAT PROCEDURE CLEARLY and link to it from enough places that hapless users have a chance of making a true, 100% clean re-install.
