As I mentioned in a previous post, when using Pronterface or Arduino, I mentioned that the virtual com port was dropping out, and requiring re-installation.

When I was attempting to do more experiments with the electronics, I had the same problem again. The virtual com port was just not showing up. I tried re-installing the software several times, but the port was still not showing up in Arduino.

It was becoming quite frustrating, so I turned to Google. I started searching for “arduino virtual com port”. Luckily, on the Arduino website, it came up with this line:

Make sure that the board is plugged in: the serial port menu refreshes whenever you open the Tools menu, so if you just unplugged the board, it won’t be in the menu.

So my problem was that I was starting up Pronterface or Arduino without having the RAMPS board plugged in first. So yeah, that was frustrating.