Arduino / USB association on Lab PCs (non-admin users)

[yeldarb]

To be sure, I do still need to test USBView against 2 other R3 boards... (need to get them back from students) Perhaps there will be a difference there.

[sajidtoor]

Thanks for sharing.....!

http://www.dogguide.eu

[yeldarb]

When I tested USBView on various Arduino R3 boards I found the same results. That is, the only difference in the information was the serial number (Device Descriptor).

The conclusion we came to on this issue is that the problem relates to Windows driver association and software deployment in the lab environment, and it's only a problem due to the fact that the students do not have admin rights. It's not really an Arduino problem per se, although I still contend that this issue will probably crop up for anyone who wants to teach Arduino in a classroom/lab of Windows PCs. The "solution" is that after software is deployed and the lab is ready, an admin must go around to each PC, connect a board and associate the drivers (or do this twice in sequence, eg for both an R3 and an R2, if there will be a mix of student boards in the classes.) Once that is done on a given PC, that PC will be fine when various students connect their Arduino boards as non-admins. As mentioned before, the only additional thing to note is that each "new" board will be assigned a "new" COM port... so these can get up quite high (COM15 anyone?) over time.

Wish there was a better answer; If someone else has one, I'd love to hear it!