Unable to program with Arduino USB Serial card

Using Arduino IDE 1.x
1

Experts,

I want to move a project from my Uno to something more permanent.

I have made a breadboard based clone using instructions from this site http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone

Everything works well - I can use my Uno to upload sketches (removing the chip from the uno of course) and sketches run as expected.

However I hit problems using an Arduino USB to Serial board (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/USBSerial) to upload sketches. This is supposed to work exactly like a FTDI cable and has the same pinouts.

When I attempt to upload a sketch the target resets as expected but the upload times out. The error is
programmer not responding.

I am using Arduino 1.0 on a Mac.

Any hints would be appreciated!

2

I've just tested the FTDI card - looped back Tx and Rx, and it works. Sent data is echoed back.

So, the serial converter works... the arduino works... help! :slight_smile:

3

Did you add the capacitor?

"The USB Serial connector is designed in a way that allows it to reset an attached board by software running on a connected computer.The external reset line mirrors the DTR line of the virtual serial device on the computer. It's typically connected to the reset line of the connected board (e.g. an Arduino Ethernet board) through a 100 nF capacitor, allowing the board to reset on upload."

4

You got it!

Added the cap in-line and it's working great. I was confused as the reset functionality was actually working. Perhaps the reset line was being held low for too long?

To be honest I am not sure what effect the capacitor is having, electronically, but it all works now.

Cheers:)