Upload Timeout Error on Mega 2560 - Not Sure What Changed

Google "Arduino DFU":

I fixed the problem I was having by getting the newest build of the Arduino software and reinstalling the driver from the Arduino folder.

I have the same issue with the Mega2560R3 board.

I have WinXP SP3 on a ThinkPad T-40. I have tried on a different machine with the same errors.

I tried the 'press the reset button' just after hitting the upload. Four tries and Blink finally uploaded.

Blink is running, but I wanted t play and changed the timing pause statements, but have not been able to upload.

I have tried the other ISP with no result.

My Com port shows Arduino Mega 2560 R3 (COM6) and the driver is usbser.sys Microsoft Corp 5.1.2600.5512(xpsp.080413-2108)

USB\VID_2341&PID_0042\64934333135351418100

I have selected the correct board and compost, and have used the AVRISP mkII

The RX light blinks once in a while.

Thoughts to help me get this running?

Ideas

Also, the loop-back test worked fine.

I have continued to troubleshoot, using any information from the forums.

It appears that I can upload more reliably if I press the reset just as soon as I can after the Binary Sketch Size message appears.

This seems kludgey, but at least I can upload.

I see posts about auto reset, etc. should (in a perfect world) this be working with an auto reset?

Thanks

HMM, it gets weirder and weirder.

I down loaded arduino-0023, made no changes to the port or hardware or preferences file and it works perfectly.

So, I renamed the avr directory in ...\arduino-1.0\hardware\tools and then copied the avr directory from ...\arduino-0023\hardware\tools directory into the ...\arduino-1.0\hardware\tools directory, and it works fine.

Conclusion, the issue is with the new version of avrdude.

The timeout error is a known issue.

Google it.

Anyone have a verified and working fix? I've had my Arduino for about 4 hours and just got hit with this (and I'm not using any !!! in my code, which was allegedly the cause of the issue). This has been going on for months now and I gotta be honest - I'm pretty frustrated that the (presumably bootloader) issue still seems to be unfixed.

Thanks for the help. I have been struggling with this same problem and it seems many have as well. I downloaded the arduino 0023 software and I got the same results as you, so I copied and renamed as you suggested and the problem is fixed. So far so good.

I was having this problem too. Luckily I hadn't erased my old 0022 program. Going back to that fixed the problem. I really ought to remember: "Never update a program that works!"

A lot of people seem to be having problems with the new version, including me. sigh Hopefully they figure it out..

Guys. I used the avrdude.exe and avrdude.conf file from 022 and it worked fine for me. There seems to be a bug in avrdude 5.11 that is causing some of these issues.

I believe I have found a fix. But I had to compile an new avrdude.exe. Here is a patch for avrdude-5.11.1/stk500v2.c

73c73
< #define SERIAL_TIMEOUT 2

#define SERIAL_TIMEOUT 5
76c76
< #define RETRIES 5


#define RETRIES 33
1317a1318,1325

printf("trying this reset stuff now..\n");
usleep(50*1000);

serial_set_dtr_rts(&pgm->fd, 1);
usleep(501000);
serial_set_dtr_rts(&pgm->fd, 0);
usleep(50
1000);

where did you find this file ?? do i just add these?

AVRDUDE 5.11.1 can be found at Index of /releases/avrdude/

I provided a patch that can be applied to the file I mentioned. But you need to apply the patch and recompile avrdude for it to work. But my upload success rate went from 40% to 100%. The code now matches more closely the way the old version worked. It's a pain. The arduino people should recognize there is a problem, and fix it.

JesseJay

I have the same problem. I have a new Mega R3. I tried both Arduino 0022 and 1.0 on my Mac OSX 10.6.8. Sometime my sketch will upload fine, but most of the time it times out. Doing some Google searches, I found this seems to be a known problem, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I've seen some talk about avrdude, but I don't know anything about fixing, compiling and uploading a boot loader. Since this problem seems to be kind of old and my hardware and software are new, I'm surprised this problem still exists. What should I do?

Moi aussi. But I can upload with Parallels PC emulator running Windows XP on my MAC but not my actual MAC.

Having tested alot with this problem, i found this:

Whenever i have string in my sketch which has threee marksigns in a string (eg: "!!!"), my sketch will make the Mega2560 timeout when uploading ("huh?..bootloader>" hex code message followed after multiple retries by avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout ).
Using Windows 2008 R2 Server (think Win7 64 will do the same), Arduino IDE 1.0 & Arduino Mega2560 compatible.

Here's a sample sketch to reproduce the error:

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
  Serial.println("!!!");
}

Hopefully this will help.

#deajan
Thanks, that solved the problem for me.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.3, Arduino IDE 1.0 & Arduino Mega ADK r1.

Thanks to Michael635 for showing that replacing the AVR directory from rev-0023 solves the problem. It solved mine!
Anders

@aefields

I was having this problem too. Luckily I hadn't erased my old 0022 program. Going back to that fixed the problem. I really ought to remember: "Never update a program that works!"

Very true! :wink:

I had the same problem and just fixed it by doing that exactly. Now, it works fine. Thank you! 8)

I also renamed all of my sketches from *.ino to *.pde.