Ardunio Serial Installer versus Windows Driver Installer for C Serial

I have my Teensy USB serial working with the C libraries. I loaded the Windows Driver Installer under the USB serial page. Progressing further, it looks like some of the Arduino libraries would be useful.

Is the Windows Serial Installer under the Teensyduino page the same as the Windows Driver Installer under the USB serial page? Will one conflict with the other?

I'm concerned about the statement 'The Teensy does not actually become a serial device until your sketch is running'. Eventually I want my project to power on and be detected as a serial port. I have not loaded the Arduino libraries yet, so I don't know all what this is about yet. Just don't want to goof up what I have working so far.

Any good links on using the Arduino libraries in a more standard C environment?

Thanks,

TLB

tlb said:

Is the Windows Serial Installer under the Teensyduino page the same as the Windows Driver Installer under the USB serial page?

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Yes, they're identical.

I'm concerned about the statement 'The Teensy does not actually become a serial device until your sketch is running'.

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When Teensy powers up, your program always runs. The HID-based bootloader is only run when you press the button, or when your program intentionally jumps to the bootloader (as all programs built with the Arduino version do when they hear a specific request to reboot).

The hardware actually handles the 2 resets differently. Power on reset is not the same reset has pulling the reset pin low.

This statement is mainly for people with a LOT of experience with Arduino. They assuming Teensy must be a serial port while in programming mode. Many times someone very experienced with Arduino had been caught in a troubleshooting loop of doing everything they can to get a COM port to show up in the Windows device manager. Windows doesn't help, especially because USB communication errors and all sorts of weird registry problems all show up as an on-screen message suggesting drivers need to be reinstalled. So when you pair Arduino's "everything is always a serial port" experience with Windows "rebooting and reinstalling drivers" experience, a LOT of time can be wasted troubleshooting a perfectly working Teensy. Those statements (and others on the troubleshooting page) are intended to help avoid going down the wrong path.

Any good links on using the Arduino libraries in a more standard C environment?

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This is an area that really needs to be developed a bit more. I'm planning to improve the Teensy 3.0 makefile, and also publish it for Teensy 2.0.

Let me know if you find anything particularly helpful.