Notification doesn't appear in Chrome but board connects automatically

[armsp]

I have a strange issue. Everything is working fine. The board connects, the data transfer happens, the demos work but I never get a notification from Chrome.
I have to manually goto the website and when I do I see my device automatically Connected.

What is even more mind boggling is that when I run WebUSB examples from Adafruit_TinyUSB Library then I do get the notifications.
Any clue why it behaves this way?

I am testing it on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS with Chrome 76.0.3809.100

[armsp]

Ok, so I used chrome://usb-internals to inspect my device. And in the USB Version it shows 2.0.0.
But I have already made this change #define USB_VERSION 0x210
Is it possible that for custom SAMD21 boards, the USBCore.h files used are in a location other than hardware/arduino/avr/cores/arduino/USBCore.h ?

My arduino device is Adafruit Feather M0 Express
I think @ladyada might be able to shed some light here.

[ladyada]

if it works in tinyusb, then that's the extent of what adafruit can support with. we dont have any insight into chrome

[armsp]

@reillyeon I think the issue is deeper than I thought. Some disparities from chrome://usb-internals -

Arduino WebUSB	Adafruit WebUSB
USB Version: 2.0.0	USB Version: 32.1.0
WebUSB Landing Page:	WebUSB Landing Page: <adafruit's demo page>

@ladyada Was it intentional to keep USB Version as 32.1.0 ?

[reillyeon]

Chrome will only query the device for a landing page if it reports USB 2.1 or greater as that is the version at which the Binary device Object Store descriptor was added to the specification.

[armsp]

@reillyeon Yeah, but I am not able to understand why the changes in the USBCore.h file isn't making it work. Any hints on that ?
Because the same hardware shows notification when used with Adafruit's library but not with yours despite the changes to USBCore.h

[jpliew]

@armsp it is best for custom mycustomboard, the configuration is done at the "boards.txt" file for that board by creating a new board definition.

For example

mycustomboard.build.extra_flags={build.usb_flags} "-DUSB_VERSION=0x210"

This flag will be passed to compiler and be used everywhere when a USB_VERSION is required. When uploading sketch, user just need to select the correct mycustomboard

Therefore, in order to use Adafruit Feather M0 Express , I would encourage @ladyada and Adafruit team to add a new board definition for this board and reduce customer frustration editing the USBCore.h which I think should not be touch because hardcode USB_VERSION in USBCore.h will cause other boards failed to operate.

This issue has been reported here #32

[ladyada]

does the arduino SAMD definition have it fixed?

[armsp]

@jpliew I understand. So I thought I'd follow what you say. But the issue is that I can't seem to find any core folders for samd21 or any other architecture. I have installed Arduino Samd Boards from the board manager and Adafruit's boards too but where do they reside locally? Inside hardware -> arduino the only option I have is avr.
Any idea where exactly I would find the boards.txt files for SAMD21 boards, doesn't matter whether they are from Arduino or Adafruit ?

[jpliew]

@armsp I don't have Adafruit board to test, but I managed to do a dry run and the steps are below.

1. Follow Adafruit's instruction to add board manager url to Arduino IDE
   https://adafruit.github.io/arduino-board-index/package_adafruit_index.json

2. Then, Tools, Board Manager, search for Adafruit and install Adafruit SAMD version 1.5.3

3. After install, if you are using Windows, the files will be located at

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\adafruit\hardware\samd\1.5.3

If you are on Linux, Arduino IDE, File, Preference, check the bottom part, you should see something like Arduino15 , this is were the boards files are installed.

If still can't find it, on Linux just do a find command to search for boards.txt

Adafruit Feather M0 Express should have the following details

# Adafruit Feather M0 Express (SAMD21)
# ------------------------------
adafruit_feather_m0_express.name=Adafruit Feather M0 Express
adafruit_feather_m0_express.vid.0=0x239A
adafruit_feather_m0_express.pid.0=0x801B
adafruit_feather_m0_express.vid.1=0x239A
adafruit_feather_m0_express.pid.1=0x001B
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.tool=bossac
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.protocol=sam-ba
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.maximum_size=262144
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.offset=0x2000
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.use_1200bps_touch=true
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.wait_for_upload_port=true
adafruit_feather_m0_express.upload.native_usb=true
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.mcu=cortex-m0plus
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.f_cpu=48000000L
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.usb_product="Feather M0 Express"
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.usb_manufacturer="Adafruit"
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.board=SAMD_FEATHER_M0_EXPRESS
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.core=arduino
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.extra_flags=-DARDUINO_SAMD_ZERO -DARDUINO_SAMD_FEATHER_M0 -DARM_MATH_CM0PLUS -DADAFRUIT_FEATHER_M0_EXPRESS -D__SAMD21G18A__ {build.usb_flags}
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.ldscript=linker_scripts/gcc/flash_with_bootloader.ld
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.openocdscript=openocd_scripts/feather_m0_express.cfg
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.variant=feather_m0_express
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.variant_system_lib=
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.vid=0x239A
adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.pid=0x801B
adafruit_feather_m0_express.bootloader.tool=openocd
adafruit_feather_m0_express.bootloader.file=featherM0/bootloader-feather_m0-v2.0.0-adafruit.5.bin
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.usbstack.arduino=Arduino
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.usbstack.tinyusb=TinyUSB
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.usbstack.tinyusb.build.flags.usbstack=-DUSE_TINYUSB
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.debug.off=Off
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.debug.on=On
adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.debug.on.build.flags.debug=-g

I suggest you duplicate these details and create a board call

Adafruit Feather M0 Express WebUSB

replacing

adafruit_feather_m0_express

with

adafruit_feather_m0_express_webusb

and product name to add WebUSB text there to differentiate the board.

then add the USB_VERSION at

adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.extra_flags=-DARDUINO_SAMD_ZERO -DARDUINO_SAMD_FEATHER_M0 -DARM_MATH_CM0PLUS -DADAFRUIT_FEATHER_M0_EXPRESS -D__SAMD21G18A__ {build.usb_flags} "-DUSB_VERSION=0x210"

Once done, restart Arduino IDE, and you can see your new board showing on Tools, Boards.

Ideally it is preferred to work with @ladyada to add this so that it will be consistent with their product support policy and reduce confusion.

Once this is done, you will have a normal

Adafruit Feather M0 Express
work with current Adafruit tutorials and examples.

and Adafruit Feather M0 Express WebUSB
work with official WebUSB library examples.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
JP

[jpliew]

@armsp depending on Adafruit's decision, they might prefer to use their current method

adafruit_feather_m0_express.menu.usbstack.webusb=xxxx

no matter which method, still, working together with Adafruit to achieve this is the best, that way Adafruit can provide greater support for customers like you.

[armsp]

@jpliew thanks a lot for such a detailed explanation and steps. I tried with the following changes but it still does NOT give notification with Arduino Webusb on Chrome. I chose NOT to create a custom board. I edited the original Adafruit Feather M0 Express board itself.

• adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.extra_flags=-DARDUINO_SAMD_ZERO -DARDUINO_SAMD_FEATHER_M0 -DARM_MATH_CM0PLUS -DADAFRUIT_FEATHER_M0_EXPRESS -D__SAMD21G18A__ {build.usb_flags} -DUSB_VERSION=0x210
• adafruit_feather_m0_express.build.extra_flags=-DARDUINO_SAMD_ZERO -DARDUINO_SAMD_FEATHER_M0 -DARM_MATH_CM0PLUS -DADAFRUIT_FEATHER_M0_EXPRESS -D__SAMD21G18A__ {build.usb_flags} "-DUSB_VERSION=0x210"

[ladyada]

sounds resolved! thaks everyone :)

[armsp]

@ladyada not really. I really appreciate your time and effort and I understand that you'd want us to use Adafruit TinyUSB Library, but fundamentally it's just a SAMD21, so it should work with Arduino Webusb too, which it does....except the usb version issue that prevents chrome from generating a notification.

[jpliew]

@ladyada not resolved yet.

Further checking, Adafruit's SAMD might not be using the original Arduino USBCore.h therefore adding USB_VERSION in the boards.txt will not work.

@armsp since Adafruit's board is working with TinyUSB, is there any specific reason you want this board to work with the original WebUSB library?

If you still want to make this work, for learning purposes, you can try hack the Arduino SAMD boards, by downloading from Board Manager. Then try again with my method.

[ladyada]

for adafruit boards use tinyusb - it works really well :)