Arduino port recognition
Sorry to dredge up an old thread (well, really only replying to one that got robo-dredged :), but maybe this will help someone someday.

A /dev/cu.&lt;something&gt; is a unix port designation. "cu." meant a port used for modems, back in the mists of time but probably isn't relevant today. But what we do learn from it is that the OP is probably using a Mac, and for sure, not Windows.

"/dev/cu.usbmodem1421" is a typical device name for an Arduino as seen by a Mac on a particular one of its USB ports - the numeric part varies according to which Mac USB port the Arduino is connected to each time.

Arduinos &amp; FTDI devices do not need additional drivers on Mac OS (that may not be true for other, non-FTDI USB-to-serial devices).

In this case, the OS already reports seeing (what looks like) an Arduino. The suggestion already put forward, checking the board-type and port selections in the IDE's 'Tools' menu, is the place to start.