Well after spending most of my time sorting out the arrangements following a bereavement in the family I have been able to spend a few hours trying to get the 1284P to talk with the PC and upload a program. But to no avail.
Just to prove that the FTI breakout board was working fine, I breadboarded the 328P chip I received off e-bay, and could upload the blink and fade exampled with no issue. Breadboarded the 1284P and hooked up the FTI board - no matter what board I select from the dropdown option I get the attached error.
Looks like I'll have to have a re-think on my project to see if I can do all the control I want using the 328P 
