CH340 Drivers and Serial Port¶
When using a computer to program the controller (avrdude, pymcuprog) with a CH340 for UPDI controllers, the software must use a serial port to communicate with the programmer. While this is also true of Android (zflasher), on Android the app locates the port automatically.
Updating on a computer can be done from Windows, Linux, or macOS. Requirements vary by platform.
The first step is to plug the USB device in and let the OS detect it and install drivers.
Note
The drivers are built into most current operating system versions so there should be no need for manually installing drivers. If for some reason the drivers are not present, download and install the drivers by hand.
After the device is detected the OS will assign it a serial port device. The exact name and location of the device depends on the operating system:
Windows¶
On Windows:
Right click the Start/Windows button
Click Device Manager
Expand Ports (COM & LPT)
Locate the port named for the device, likely “USB-SERIAL CH340”, and note the port listed afterward.
For example
COM7
.
If there is a !
and the same port is in the list twice:
Double click the “USB-SERIAL CH340” device
Click the Port Settings tab
Click Advanced
Change the device to a different (unused) COM port number
Linux¶
On Linux, the device will be /dev/ttyUSB<id>
for example, /dev/ttyUSB0
.
If there are multiple devices, the correct device is likely the highest one or
one with the newest timestamp.
macOS¶
On macOS, the device will be /dev/cu.usbserial-<id>
, the ID will vary by
hardware. If there are multiple devices, the correct device is likely the one
with the newest timestamp.