Automation Mini, example not working

Support
1

Have used the Badger successfully, some time back. Running on Win-10, September update.

Started with the Automation Mini, but I don’t get the “>>>” in the shell window, and when trying to run the example I get the error attached. COM5 is only present in Device Manager when the Automation is plugged in. Have uploaded the firmware pimoroni-picow-v1.19.8-micropython.uf2. Am I missing something obvious? Tried running Thonny as Admin, but no difference.

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Oh, where is the LED which is supposed to flash? Which LED?

Thanks,
David

2

Thonny is looking at the wrong port number. You need to manually reconfigure it and select the correct port. Mine switches around depending on what Pico Tufty etc I have plugged in. Even when I use the same USB port.

3

Thanks, but Device Manager shows port COM5. I configured Thonny for COM5. Not sure what else you are suggesting. The screen-shot shows COM5.

4

Ok, try clicking “Stop” in Thonny. It that Pico has a main.py on it, it will auto run and show as busy.

5

Resolved - it was a COM5 issue.
Long story: I have Franson GpsGate installed which I have set up a long time ago to use COM5 as a virtual COM port to which other programs can connect tot display or analyse GPS data. This virtual COM port does /not/ show in the device manager with Franson active, even when a client program is connected to Franson. So I changed Franson to COM4 and all is OK.
Thanks for your patience and suggestions

6

I’ve had similar issues happen, as I’m always tinkering with different bits of kit on my PC and Pi 400 etc. Good to hear you got it working.