Electronic – Has anyone programmed ATmega8A using USBasp

atmegausbasp

I have failed to program ATmega8A using USBasp. I am sure that the wiring is ok. I have programmed an ATtiny13A several times with the same USBasp. However, no luck with the ATmega8A. This is the error avrdude shows-

avrdude.exe: error: programm enable: target doesn't answer. 1 
avrdude.exe: initialization failed, rc=-1    
             Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check.

I tested without the microcontroller connected and found the same error. Which means I have broken connection. I don’t think so.

Is there any possible reason avrdude shows this error without broken connection?

Best Answer

Your setup might just be flawed.

I have programmed not specifically the ATmega8, but I have done an ATmega16 which is the same process. I note the article on my website which has been used by many.

At one point in the article I list a command:

-c usbasp -p atmega16 -B12 -U flash:w:"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(ItemFileName).hex":i

You will change this to

-c usbasp -p atmega8 -B12 -U flash:w:"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(ItemFileName).hex":i

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Electronic – arduino – Problems with homemade RS232-to-TTL converter board based on TI’s MAX232

Your question was way to long to read, but it seems you are having some problems with a MAX232-type of converter circuit. I have made what seems to be a very similar circuit using one of the TI variants of the chip, and even sell it as a product. Go to www.embedinc.com/products/rslink2 and you can see all the documentation, from a picture to the board layout to the schematic. Perhaps you can see what you are doing differently.

One thing I noticed while skimming your question is that you are using electrolytic caps. Double check that the polarity of each is correct. Another issue is that some COM ports, particularly USB to RS-232 converters, won't work without RTS/CTS, whether this is enabled in software or not. Note how I have pins 7 and 8 connected to each other on the DB9-F connector.

Electronic – How to tell that USBasp is working

The error message you are seeing means that the chip is not responding to the "enable programming mode" command that the programmer is sending. Either you have got the connections wrong, or the programmer is sending the commands too quickly (programming frequency too high).

New AVR chips come configured to use the chip's internal oscillator as a clock source, with the CLOCKDIV8 ("divide clock frequency by 8") fuse set. This means that they run at 1MHz. The maximum programming frequency the chip supports is clock speed / 4, i.e. 250kHz. The USBASP defaults to 375kHz, which is too fast, so you need to slow it down.

You do this either by setting the "slow SCK" jumper of your USBASP, if it has one, or by using the avrdude -B option:

    avrdude -c usbasp -p m328p -B 5 -U flash:w:bootloader.hex:i

The number after the -B option selects the programming speed (specifically, the clock period, the inverse of the frequency, so higher numbers mean slower frequencies). If -B 5 doesn't work, try a higher number, like -B12 or even -B60.

Update: this line in the avrdude output suggests that your USBASP firmware version doesn't support the -B option, so you will need to use the jumper:

    avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Electronic – arduino – Problems with homemade RS232-to-TTL converter board based on TI’s MAX232

Electronic – How to tell that USBasp is working

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