I am using an Arduino (with ATmega168) as an ISP programmer to program ATtiny13. When I try to do this, avrdude reports:
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9406
avrdude: Expected signature for ATtiny13 is 1E 90 07
The -F flag to force programming does not override the ID in this case.
I know I can reset the ID with a high voltage programmer, but why did is the device wrongly reporting its ID in the first place? And why is it an intermittent problem? Every now and then the programmer works fine, but when it doesn't it always pops the exact same erratic ID.
Full avrdude output:
avrdude: Version 5.11.1, compiled on Oct 30 2011 at 10:37:28
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch
System wide configuration file is "/etc/avrdude.conf"
User configuration file is "/home/jhendrix/.avrduderc"
User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping
Using Port : /dev/ttyUSB003
Using Programmer : stk500v1
Overriding Baud Rate : 19200
AVR Part : ATtiny13
Chip Erase delay : 4000 us
PAGEL : P00
BS2 : P00
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack
----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
eeprom 65 5 4 0 no 64 4 0 4000 4000 0xff 0xff
flash 65 6 32 0 yes 1024 32 32 4500 4500 0xff 0xff
signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
calibration 0 0 0 0 no 2 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
Programmer Type : STK500
Description : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware
Hardware Version: 2
Firmware Version: 1.16
Vtarget : 0.0 V
Varef : 0.0 V
Oscillator : Off
SCK period : 0.1 us
avrdude: please define PAGEL and BS2 signals in the configuration file for part ATtiny13
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9406
avrdude: Expected signature for ATtiny13 is 1E 90 07
Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.
avrdude done. Thank you.
Best Answer
It's not a very probable error, and the consistency of this "wrong" ID may be telling. Bad connections can cause some glitching, but usually in the form of lagging bits (i.e. showing values neighboring bits are), and 94 vs 90 doesn't look like that. Further, a quick search in avrdude's list of AVR IDs shows that the ID you get is that of an ATmega168, common on Arduino. Furthermore, the Arduino bootloader speaks the STK500 protocol, which your avrdude is using here, so the obvious question is what your programmer is?
I'd guess you may have something like an Arduino set up as a programmer to program other AVRs, and when it happens to be resetting (and thefore still in the bootloader, which has a timeout before starting the loaded program/"sketch") as avrdude is started, you get to reprogram that AVR instead of the next board.
My second guess, which would be the first without the above notes on Arduino behaviour, would be talking to another programmer unintentionally; that can be affected by simple things like the order they are connected to USB.
In either scenario, it's not actually an incorrect ID, but another AVR than intended responding. For the Arduino as programmer case, things can be complicated by automatic reset when you start a program to talk to the board; working around that might be a bit more complex, and my first guess would be something like
(sleep 3 ; avrdude -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c stk500 -p t13 -U ... ) < /dev/ttyUSB0, which would ensure a delay between opening the serial port and running avrdude.