I'm new to Arduino, so there has to be something I'm doing wrong. I've tried three different Arduino Pro Minis...
On the first, a generic, I was unable to upload using the FTDI board. I used an Uno to upload using Arduino as ISP, and was able to upload one sketch. But when I tried to upload an update to that sketch, was unable to do so, even using the Uno as ISP again. The red light on it flashes very rapidly whenever connected to power, so I figured it has to be bad.
I bought another generic from Amazon, and again, unable to upload with FTDI, so I used Arduino Uno as ISP, and uploaded. Once. After that, it fails. I returned this Pro Mini, as I couldn't get it to do anything else.
Finally, I spent 3x the money on a Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini, with www.arduino.cc on the bottom, so I believe that this one is the name brand, right? Well, it will not upload with the FTDI board, nor through an Uno as ISP. When I try to use the Uno as ISP, I get the error that the avrdude can't sync (I'll post the exact error below). When I try using the FTDI board, it just says "uploading" forever, without ending. The blue light on the FTDI board and the red light on the Pro Mini both flash very rapidly, but nothing seems to be happening.
Have I just had incredibly bad luck with getting bad boards, or am I doing something terribly wrong? Even right now as I type this, I'm trying to upload this very simple sketch, and it is "uploading" forever.
int x;
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
Serial.println("Setup");
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
Serial.println(x++);
}
Here is the error I get after disconnecting the USB cable:
avrdude: Version 6.0.1, compiled on Apr 15 2015 at 19:59:58
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg WunschSystem wide configuration file is "Z:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
Using Port : COM8
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 57600
avrdude: ser_drain(): read error: The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.
Well, what do you know.... I tried one more time using the Uno to program the Pro Mini, and it seems to have worked. I'm still curious why I have been 100% unsuccessful in programming using the FTDI board, or why so often it fails with the Uno. There has to be something I'm doing wrong here.
