Arm Device Manager
Overview
The Device Manager extension allows you to manage hardware connections for Arm-based microcontrollers, development boards, and debug probes. You can install the extension individually or as part of the Arm Debugger extension pack.
Connect your hardware
This section describes how to connect your hardware for the first time.
Click Device Manager
in the Activity Bar.
Connect your hardware to your computer over a USB connection.
The Device Manager detects the hardware and a pop-up message displays in the bottom right-hand corner.
Click OK to use the hardware.
Alternatively, click Add Device
and select your hardware in the drop-down list that displays at the top of the window.
You can now use your hardware to run and debug a project.
To add more hardware, click Add Device
in the top right-hand corner.
Edit your hardware
If the Device Manager cannot detect your hardware or if you are using an external debug probe, you can edit the hardware entry. You can specify a Device Family Pack (DFP) and a device name retrieved from the pack to be able to work with your hardware. DFPs handle device support.
Move your cursor over the hardware that you want to edit and click Configure Pack
.
Select a DFP for your hardware in the drop-down list.
Select a device name in the drop-down list.
To change the name of the hardware, click Rename Device
, then rename your hardware and press Enter.
Open a serial monitor
Open a serial monitor. The serial output shows the output of your board. You can use the serial output as a debugging tool or to communicate directly with your board.
Move your cursor over the hardware for which you want to open a serial monitor and click Open Serial
.
A drop-down list displays at the top of the window where you can select a baud rate. The baud rate is the data rate in bits per second between your computer and your hardware. To view the output of your hardware correctly, you must select an appropriate baud rate. The baud rate that you select must be the same as the baud rate of your active project.
Select a baud rate.
A Terminal tab opens with the baud rate selected.
Troubleshooting
This section provides solutions to some common issues you might experience when you use the Device Manager extension.
Connected development board or debug probe not found
You have connected your development board or debug probe, but the Device Manager extension cannot detect the hardware.
Solution
Run Device Manager on Windows, System Information on a Mac, or a Linux system utility tool like hardinfo. Check for warnings beside your hardware. Warnings can indicate that hardware drivers are not installed. If necessary, obtain and install the appropriate drivers for your hardware.
On Windows: ST development boards and probes require extra drivers. You can download them from the ST site.
On Windows: Check if you have an Mbed™ serial port driver installed on your machine. The Mbed serial port driver is required with Windows 7 only. Serial ports work out of the box with Windows 8.1 or newer. The Mbed serial port driver breaks native Windows functionality for updating drivers because it claims all the boards with a DAPLink firmware by default. We recommend that you uninstall the driver if you do not need it. Alternatively, you can disable it.
You can either:
Uninstall the Mbed serial port driver (recommended):
pnputil /enum-drivers
pnputil /delete-driver {oemnumber.inf} /force
Then, connect your hardware using a USB cable and open the Windows Device Manager.
In Ports (COM & LPT)
and Universal Serial Bus controllers
, find the mbed
entries and right-click them both to uninstall them.
Finally, disconnect and reconnect your hardware.
Disable the Mbed serial port driver:
Open the Windows Device Manager.
In Ports (COM & LPT)
, find the Mbed Serial Port. Right-click it and select Properties.
Select the Driver tab and click Update Driver.
Click Browse my computer for drivers and then click Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
Select USB Serial Device
instead of mbed Serial Port
.
On Linux: udev rules grant permission to access USB boards and devices. To build and run a project on your hardware or to debug a project, you must install udev rules.
Clone the pyOCD repository, then copy the rules files which are available in the udev folder to /etc/udev/rules.d/
as explained in the README.md file. Follow the instructions in the README
file.
The Device Manager extension can detect your connected hardware after you install the udev rules. If you still encounter a permission issue when accessing the serial output, run sudo adduser "$USER" dialout
, and then restart your machine.
Check that the firmware version of your board or debug probe is supported and update the firmware to the latest version. See Out-of-date firmware for more details.
Your board or device might be claimed by other processes or tools. This might happen if you are accessing a board or device with several instances of Visual Studio Code, or with different IDEs.
Activate the Manage All Devices setting. This setting allows you to select any USB hardware connected to your computer. By default, the Device Manager extension gives you access only to hardware from known vendors.
Out-of-date firmware
You have connected your development board or debug probe and a pop-up message appears mentioning that the firmware is out of date.
Solution
Update the firmware of the board or debug probe to the latest version:
DAPLink. If you cannot find your board or probe on daplink.io
, then check the website of the manufacturer for your hardware.
ST-LINK. Note that ST development boards and probes on Windows require extra drivers. You can download them from the ST site.
For other WebUSB-enabled CMSIS-DAP firmware updates, contact your board or debug probe vendor.
Note: If you are using an FRDM-KL25Z board and the standard DAPLink firmware update procedure does not work, follow the procedure in Changing to mbed firmware on FRDM-KL25Z using Windows 10 (requires Windows 7 or Windows XP).
For more information on firmware updates, see also the Debug Probe Firmware Update Information Application Note.
Submit feedback or report issues
To submit feedback or report issues on the Device Manager extension, please use GitHub issues in the extension repository.