How the problem started
I was playing around with using the Arduino Nano BLE 33 as a keyboard, and stumbled upon the USBHID>Keyboard sketch which I got via the default suggestion from the Board Manager to install Arduino Mbed OS Nano Boards:
See the source on github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed, or reproduced below:
#include "PluggableUSBHID.h"
#include "USBKeyboard.h"
USBKeyboard Keyboard;
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
delay(1000);
Keyboard.printf("Hello world\n\r");
}
It seemed fairly innocent, so I uploaded it without a second thought thinking that I could trust anything provided from Arduino itself as an example script.
What the problem is
But now, as soon as I plug in the Nano, it types Hello world followed by a newline every. single. second.
If I try to upload the blink sketch to clear it, I first need to select the Port, but the act of going through the menu to choose the correct port takes over a second, and typing in Hello world selects the library manager and ends up opening it when enter is pressed due to the \n\r. So my Arduino Nano has been rendered useless by code included as an example in the default sketches. That's not cool.
Failed Solution Number 1
I tried creating a custom keyboard shortcut to select the port in less than a second, and then pressing cmd-U to upload, but I think there might also be a problem there because I get this error:
...
Found upload port: /dev/cu.usbmodem11401
/Users/<my username>/Library/Arduino15/packages/arduino/tools/bossac/1.9.1-arduino2/bossac -d --port=cu.usbmodem11401 -U -i -e -w /var/folders/y1/md9_k_td4rz1f0pq26d24crh0000gn/T/arduino_build_230227/<my script name>.ino.bin -R
-> No device found on cu.usbmodem11401
An error occurred while uploading the sketch
....
I'm absolutely certain that cu.usbmodem11401 is the correct port, because that's what shows up when I ls /dev/cu* while the Arduino is plugged in. So I think that the Arduino IDE is attempting to upload to cu.usbmodem11401, but sees that it's a keyboard, and decides that it can't upload code to a keyboard so aborts.
Failed Solution Number 2
I tried uploading blink.ino from a different laptop (also macos) but nothing changed.
Failed Solution Number 3
I tried looking for ways to 'distrust' a keyboard to prevent the Arduino from sending keyboard strokes, but couldn't anything.
Failed Solution Number 4
Maybe attempting to short circuit whichever wire the Arduino uses to communicate with the laptop will work, but I don't know nearly enough to do that so I'd just be randomly connecting wires to ground which I don't really want to do...
Fin
I'm at a loss for what to try. I've logged an issue with the github repo, but I can't think of other solutions.
