David, I use the burn bootloader parallel port ISP option from the version 010 IDE. The board is set to Diecimila and as far as I know, everything in boards.txt has the default value. The lock bit settings are:
diecimila.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
diecimila.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
Is there any code I can add to a test sketch that can check if the lock bits are set correctly? Indeed, any code that would help to determine if the bootloader was healthy or otherwise would help me track down this problem
Adilson. In my recent testing I have noticed that sketch length alone is not the trigger for the problem. Failures usually occur on bigger sketches but some big sketches always seem to load reliably. I am now thinking that the problem may have something to do with the actual sketch code. But because the problem is intermittent and I still don't know why or how the bootloader is failing I am not really clear on if it's a hardware or software problem (or both).
My uncertainty is heightened because one of my two serial boards is much more robust than the other, but sending seems reliable on both boards when the sketch is running. Its only in the upload process that a problem occurs. And the problem is always in the initial handshake waiting for a response to: Send: 0 [30] [20]