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[Reply #30 on:]

yes I think that's the best option, although I only purchased the Uno recently. I'll give it a go.
Although do you think it's possible the USBdroid needs a unique bootloader ?
... then I may have to reload that version later. hmmm ... thinking, thinking

[Reply #31 on:]

More than you want to know:
The details of the 28k problem are here: http://code.google.com/p/arduino/issues/detail?id=380 and http://code.google.com/p/optiboot/issues/detail?id=23

fusebytes will only report the version for optiboot itself (there's no universally-agreed way to store "bootloader version" across all versions).

In order for "Fusebytes" to report the optiboot version number, you need to have both a version of optiboot that CONTAINS a version number, AND a slightly changed fuse configuration that allows the sketch to read that version.  This change (https://github.com/WestfW/Arduino/commit/39a496616f241a3908d7821dcb15520f16ecd871 ) to the fuses was rejected by the Arduino team (nervous about changing the fuse bytes!), and was made somewhat unnecessary by https://github.com/WestfW/Arduino/commit/7b1ee0f1b0192143fffbbed66dc046b6568f4386 , which lets AVRDUDE see the correct version number.

If you run your sketch upload in verbose mode, somewhere within the output (use a short sketch) should be a report of the Firmware Version:avrdude: Recv: . [03]
avrdude: Recv: . [10]
         Hardware Version: 3
         Firmware Version: 4.4
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [84]   [20]
This will show "3.3" for the old production version of optiboot (with the 28k bug), and "4.4" for the new production version of optiboot (with "most" bugs fixed.)  It's slightly possible for an Arduino to be running a bootloader with the 28k fix and still be telling avrdude that it's running 3.3, if someone installed optiboot from the optiboot project source code, or from my Arduino fork, before that second commit was added (the 28k bug was actually fixed by the original optiboot author, JUST after the arduino team pulled the version they ended up using...)

[Reply #32 on:]

You'll probably want to contact the manufacturer directly to make sure, but I don't see any reason why not. I don't see anything in the USBdroid that would require a custom bootloader. It looks like there's a lot more circuitry for all the fancy stuff it does, but the ATMega328 portion seems to be pretty standard (USB IO on pins 0 & 1, LED on pin 13, etc.).

[Reply #33 on:]

great info thanks westfw I'll study that in detail over weekend.

Freetronics have advised "The bootloader installed on the USBDroid is the Optiboot bootloader used on the Uno, but with our USB PID/VID." I've asked for version number, but it may take a while to get that response.

So how do I switch upload mode to "verbose" so I can see bootloader version? 

[Reply #34 on:]

So how do I switch upload mode to "verbose" so I can see bootloader version? 

In 1.0, there's a checkbox in "preferences"
In 0023 and earlier, hold "shift" when you click the upload button.

[Reply #35 on:]

well, well .... it's reporting:

avrdude: Recv: . [10]
         Hardware Version: 3
         Firmware Version: 3.3

and I see what you mean about using a small sketch. I blindly ignored this advice and compiled my 27,600 bytes sketch, which promptly spewed out so much output in verbose mode it would probably have filled 200 printed pages. Trying to find the above text in so much ascii without a search function is not a good idea  
but I did eventually run a miniature sketch and found it quite easily.

so ...  now I've gotta learn how to upgrade the boot loader to 4.4.
somehow I think I'm in the right forum for that question.

[Reply #36 on:]

It's slightly possible for an Arduino to be running a bootloader with the 28k fix and still be telling avrdude that it's running 3.3 ....

should I check for this possibility in my arduino now, or just "go the whole hog" and ugrade to 4.4 ASAP ?