User Manual

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I don't understand why the COM port disappears, this does not happen on my Arduino UNO!

UNO-type Arduinos have a

seperate

serial port chip (aka "FTDI chip" or "Prolific PL2303" etc etc) which handles all

serial port capability seperately than the main chip. This way if the main chip fails, you can always use the COM port.

M0 and 32u4-based Arduinos do not have a seperate chip, instead the main processor performs this task for you. It

allows for a lower cost, higher power setup...but requires a little more effort since you will need to 'kick' into the

bootloader manually once in a while