The circuit playground I received will not connect after the maker app and drivers were installed. In the help section, it says that the device should not be the express version, but the thing I ordered was the Code.org Circuit Playground from Adafruit.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Sorry you are having problems. Here is a link to a page full of information for the Circuit Playground:
If this doesn’t help, please let us know.
Karen
Unfortunately, I am having issues as well with the same Circuit Playgrounds that I used last year. For two days now I have helped the kids to follow the directions to set up their Chromebooks to use the devices. They all pass the setup correctly, but when they begin U6L3, their boards sometimes work, then sometimes don’t. Mostly they don’t. They keep getting the gray message to ‘try again’. They have tried resetting the boards, re-running the set-ups, but the problem still continues. It’s very frustrating. I’m wondering if their was any changes to the software since last year that is making last years circuit boards unusable. My school can’t afford to buy a whole new classroom set.
Ms. Salas,
I don’t think you need to think about purchasing new Circuit Playgrounds. I know this has been a theme over the past few weeks and with all the variables (newer versions of Chrome, different devices, etc…) it’s hard to isolate the problem. Make sure you submit a bug so the engineers can see all the issues happening on different devices.
I know that’s not a great answer - and if you’re stuck you might want to explore with the design part of App Lab while this issue gets figured out. This might also be a time to use pair programming (if you aren’t already). Sorry for the trouble,
Brad
Ms. Salas,
As I was reporting your issue - I saw this article posted. It might help - let us know!
Brad
Hi Brad,
Thanks, but my kids all have Chromebooks. As far as I know, you can’t download the firmware .ino files on a Chromebook. I may end up having to skip the entire unit, but that would still leave me with a few months of lesson planning…not sure what to do.
Andrea
Hi everyone,
I’m a Product Manager on the team at Code.org. Thanks for reporting this, I’m very sorry about the current disruption this is causing for your class. We have not released any changes to Maker Toolkit recently and are working to understand the root cause, but it appears to be an issue that is impacting many Chromebook users. Our engineering team is actively working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Here is what we know so far, along with some temporary steps that may allow you to work around these bugs:
The Reset button is currently broken on Chromebooks for these levels. Clicking it will cause connectivity issues between the Chromebook and the Adafruit Circuit Playground. If your students need to use the Reset button to test their code, ask them to refresh their browser window instead. (This is not an acceptable long-term solution, but I hope it will help in the short term.
If your students do click the Reset button and discover that Circuit Playground no longer works, use the following steps to fix Circuit Playground:
Finally, ensure you are using Circuit Playground in one tab only. Using it in multiple tabs will cause further connectivity issues.
Thank you for your patience, and I apologize again for the disruption. I know this issue is very disruptive to your students, and our team is working toward a resolution as quickly as we can.
Best,
Ryan Sloan
Product Manager
Hi everyone,
We believe this particular issue is now resolved. Please reach out to support@code.org if you encounter any further issues connecting to your Circuit Playgrounds using Chromebooks.
Best,
Ryan
I am using the Circuit Playground Express with MacBook Air’s with my class. Student’s are able to connect through the Maker App, but they routinely get disconnected. Unplugging, plugging back in, and refreshing the page usually works, but there frequency with which they have to do this is very frustrating. I have tried swapping boards, usb chords, and computers, and have not been able to find the source of the problem. I would greatly appreciate any help.
Hi @jwofsey,
Sorry you’re having trouble with the Circuit Playgrounds! I’d recommend checking out https://studio.code.org/maker/setup to make sure you have the latest version of the software installed on the devices. This support article has more information that should help.
If that doesn’t work, you can always fill out a bug report here and someone from Code.org should be in touch to assist further. Please keep us up to date on what happens so we know how to solve similar issues should they arise in the future.
Hope that helps!
–Michael K.
I have all the latest software installed. Support just keeps referring me to that same article, but it has nothing to help this situation. The boards constantly get disconnected. Making any change to code, often requires a student to unplug, plug, refresh the page. Sometimes that still doesn’t work.
Jason,
This sounds frustrating. Sorry for the trouble…Please fill out a bug report so they can try to come up with a solution for this.
Karen