Hi Rongzhong, Thank you for replying again. I'm very busy during the week so I only have time on the weekends to work on this. I spent another frustrating several hours trying to get the serial uploads working. One thing I clarified is that your manufacturing test program includes some of the IRremote code. It accepts button pushes from the remote and makes prints on the Arduino console. What is more, the Play and the 5 button on the remote cause the head servo to turn back and forth. Here are the prints: So that was interesting, but not useful. Here are all of the things I've tried now: • USB Port to Petoi USB Adapter on Windows (original failure avrdude etc) • USB port to Petoi USB Adapter on another computer (Linux). I set up the environment, with the same bad outcome • USB Port to Silicon Labs USB/UART Bridge Evaluation Kit CP2104 EK on Win (same outcome) • Confirmed bidirectional serial character communications between Petoi USB Adapter and CP2104 serial bridge with 2 USB connection and terminals on the windows computer. This shows me the Petoi USB Adapter is probably fine. I could try a hex file transfer or xmodem to confirm but I haven't yet. • Tried to set up the Petoi Bluetooth Adapter as a SPP device in Linux but that was a little over my head at this point. I was able to connect and pair. • Succesfully set up the Petoi Bluetooth Adapter on Windows and got a COM port that Arduino could recognize. However, while the COM port allowed occasional upload of a sketches (I've tried the testBuzzer.ini and WriteInstinct), the communication is then one-sided. What I mean is, there is output from Arduino to the serial console, but it doesn't accept text entry from the computer. So this is what I get: It just doesn't let me enter text. (Y) I think it at least indicates there isn't a bootloader problem since I was able to load the sketch via the Petoi Bluetooth Adapter. On a console program, reconnecting via the Petoi USB Adapter,.it really seems to be the same output (and I still can't upload) I have it set to 115200 and either No Flow Control or Xon/Xoff but there seems to be no difference in the garbage output or the inability to enter commands/responses: At this point, although I want to believe that the smaller items like the serial devices are at fault, that would mean 3 different serial devices failed: -Petoi USB -Silicon Labs CP2104 -Petoi Bluetooth on 2 different computers & operating systems, making 6 or more faulty combinations. As a logical conclusion, I think either I'm doing something totally wrong or there may actually be something wrong with the NyBoard. I think there seems to be pretty good evidence for the latter. What do you think? Thanks, -Alex

Rongzhong, thank you for responding so quickly! OK, that is good to know about the test code from the factory. As I mentioned, one time I did get the testInfraredRemote working and the head turned, but I can't even load that again. Do you think I need to upload a bootloader? Also, the LEDs 0-6 seem to be indicating something -- do you have a table of these meanings? Arduino Uno was already selected, but I tried selecting another board and then intentionally selecting Arduino Uno, no change. COM78 (initially it was COM77) was the only port showing under Tools. When you use a lot of USB devices, these tend to grow. I ran the COMP Port Arbiter Tool and cleared all of my unused ports, so the next time I connected, I got COM3. However, that didn't change the situation. I suspected it could be privileges, but now I'm running Arduino as Administrator, no change. I guess my next step will be to try on a different computer. I don't think my wife will want to trade permanently, though! 😁 -Alex

That's probably how I finally got mine on without knowing it!