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Dude, Where's My SAMD21 and SAMD51 Drivers For Windows 7?
Behold: SAMD drivers that work with Windows 7
As some of you may know, Windows 7 and our SAMD21 and SAMD51 products have not really played well together in the past. Luckily, SparkFun has recently created some new drivers for our SAMD products that should work on Windows 7 machines:
- RedBoard Turbo
- SAMD21 Development Breakout Board
- SAMD21 Mini Breakout Board
- LumiDrive
- 9DoF Razor IMU
- ProRF - LoRa
- SAMD51 Thing Plus
You can find the GitHub Repo with the Windows 7 installer package for SparkFun's SAMD21/SAMD51-based breakout boards below. Be sure to download the sparkfun_drivers_1.0.5.1.exe file specifically. Later versions of Windows should have built-in support.
Downloading and installing the drivers should be simple. An executable installation package is provided, so it should fairly straightforward. Click on the executable and follow the prompts to install. The following hookup guides have been updated for Windows 7 drivers.
SAMD21 Mini/Dev Breakout Hookup Guide
An introduction to the Atmel ATSAMD21G18 microprocessor and our Mini and Pro R3 breakout boards. Level up your Arduino-skills with the powerful ARM Cortex M0+ processor.
9DoF Razor IMU M0 Hookup Guide
How to use and re-program the 9DoF Razor IMU M0, a combination of ATSAMD21 ARM Cortex-M0 microprocessor and MPU-9250 9DoF-in-a-chip.
SparkFun SAMD21 Pro RF Hookup Guide
Using the super blazing, nay blinding, fast SAMD21 whipping clock cycles at 48MHz and the RFM96 module to connect to the Things Network (and other Radio woodles).
RedBoard Turbo Hookup Guide
An introduction to the RedBoard Turbo. Level up your Arduino-skills with the powerful SAMD21 ARM Cortex M0+ processor!
LumiDrive Hookup Guide
The LumiDrive LED Driver is SparkFun’s foray into all things Python on micro-controllers. With the SparkFun LumiDrive you will be able to control and personalize a whole strand of APA102s directly from the board itself.
SAMD51 Thing Plus Hookup Guide
This tutorial covers the basic functionality of the SAMD51 Thing Plus and highlights the features of the new ARM Cortex-M4F development board.
Troubleshooting Tips
Note: It may take a minute or two for your computer to recognize the drivers after the installation process. If you are initially having trouble with your computer recognizing your board:
- Try unplugging and plugging your board back in.
- Try forcing your board into bootloader mode.
- Retry the installation.
Keep in mind that you will need to have the SAMD product forced into bootloader mode by hitting the reset button twice in order to upload code after you have successfully installed the Windows 7 drivers. You can learn how to get a SAMD product into bootloader mode below:
If you are still running into issues and require technical support, head over to the SparkFun forums and post in the SAMD category. For more information on how technical support works, check out the Technical Assistance landing page:
Glorious Day!!
Does this mean that the SparkFun Wireless Joystick Kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14051) will now work with windows 7?
Yes, that is correct. The hookup guide for that kit is listed in the updated tutorials above. Keep in mind, as noted in the blog post, you will need to force the board into the "bootloader mode" to upload code.