Hi!
Unlike Sparkfun, who actually manage to find fake Atmel ICs, we just get strange batches.
The Atmel ATMega328 is the power behind the Arduino/Freeduino/*duino, and we have to set up a programming system to burn the venerable Arduino Bootloader into these chips.
We normally use an AVR STK500 in HVSP (high voltage serial programming) mode, as that lets us be absolutely sure the fuses are set correctly and the burn is correct. Interestingly enough, this last batch of chips refused to work with our batch files. Asking the chip's ID often returned 0x01 0x03 0X05 instead of the expected signature.
After spending a day checking to see if the programmer was broken (nope) or if the chips were fake (nope, we think), we did find that they did respond to regular old ICSP (in-circuit serial programming), but only partially.
Digging around, we found some older ATMega328 chips that worked fine, and compared them to this new batch. This troublesome batch has a date code of 1015 (15th week of 2010), and a batch code on the bottom as 9J4302 / 35473d / 1-P1015 e3.
So we re-wrote our batch file burning code to use AVRDude instead of the STK500 command-programmer, and to run it in ICSP mode on the STK500. The key addition is the "-B" part, which slows down the communication a bit. You want it as low as possible for fastest burn times. I tried a "-B 2" on both fuse & programming lines, but that really slowed the process. What's below is what we settled on.
: Set fuse bits, lock bits, voltages
.avrdude -c stk500v2 -i 20 -p m328p -P COM1 -b 115200 -B 1.8 -e -u -U lock:w:0x3f:m -U efuse:w:0x05:m -U hfuse:w:0xDA:m -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m
: Burn & Lock Arduino hex bootloader file
.avrdude -c stk500v2 -p m328p -P COM1 -b 115200 -B 1.1 -U flash:w:%HEXFILE% -U lock:w:0x0f:m
Hope that'll save anybody else from blowing better part of a day figuring out why their Atmel isn't programming normally!
Besides introducing a whole new batch of Push-Pogopins (and their measurements) into the 'misc' category, we've just introduced our 'D2' Germanium Diode. This diode is pretty good - better than the 1N270 and 1N34 types, with a voltage dropout of only 0.36V at 50mA! We're not exactly sure what type it is, but since we […]
Well, somebody from Solarbotics will be at the Eastern Canadian Robot Games, namely Dave Hrynkiw, and Grant McKee. If you're going to be out in the Toronto region this weekend (October 26 and 27), come by and see the games at the Ontario Science Center!
Temporary Tattoos to Monitor Vitals An lighter more wearable alternative to FitBit (Via Beautiful Decay) Laser-Cut Wood Illustrations Layering laser-cut wood taken to a whole new level, by Martin Tomsky (Via Colossal) Tiny V8 Engine Out of Paper Paper can be exceptionally sturdy, especially when strengthened by glue. By Aliaksei Zholner (Via Gizmodo) REM Detection […]
Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.
Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.