I am trying to add program the kitten for the first time. I have the FTDI board connected to the kitten v0_2 board and the usb to my Mac OSX. When I make the physical connection the board makes a very high pitch sound for a moment and I do not see a port option other than bluetooth. I would like to get past this step and push some code over to the board. Any help is appreciated. I am a teacher and what to teach this to my students but most complicated project we have ever done is with the ATtiny85
Rongzhong, thank you for pointing out I put board the board in backward, I changed it back now, but I am somewhat experienced with Arduino and this is not my first project. I need some trouble-shooting from you that is not copy and paste. No servos connected ? Checked. Different USB ports? Checked, Arduino settings? Checked. Powered both with and without external batteries? Checked. For the $600 I spent on two of these kits I would really appreciate some more nuanced help here. There is power, but not communication to the board.
If you have already connected the servos to the board, you will need to power the board with external battery before connecting the FTDI. I recommend you unplug the servos first so that you can test the board alone. When connecting, match the GND pin on both the FTDI uploader and the 6-pin socket on NyBoard.
You can plug the FTDI to different USB ports on your computer to see whether the uploader appears in the port of Arduino IDE. If previously you plugged the FTDI when servos are connected, they may pull too much current from the USB port and triggered your computer's protection mechanism, i.e. disabling the USB ports.
I also noticed that you are installing NyBoard in an opposite direction. The 6-pin FTDI port should be installed towards the tail.