ATMEGA644P with Arduino Uno as ISP

Development Tools Uploading
1

I‘m having trouble uploading codes to a ATMEGA644P where I’m using an Arduino as ISP. I’m using the ATMEGA644P core from the MigthyCore bundle by MCUdude v2.0.1. The Arduino I use as ISP (and the accompanying cables I use) works without issue for uploading sketches to other chips so I’ve determined that the issue is either:

  1. The ATMEGA644P settings in the Arduino IDE
    • My initial setup uses the standard pinout, 1MHz internal clock, Compiler LTO disabled, 644P/644PA, BOD 2.7v. I’ve tried variations on all of these without any luck. I'm not entirely sure what the BOD and LTO settings mean.
  2. The PCB where the ATMEGA644P is seated
    • The ATMEGA644P is in a TQFP44 package. I followed this pinout for the circuitry: https://camo.githubusercontent.com/178242e7684d9ab642e0c43fcb64b3a0bcb5c289/68747470733a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f4b3334785a62342e6a7067
    • The Arduino ISP is connected to the VCC, GND, RESET, SCK, MISO and MOSI via a header socket located close to the ATMEGA644P similarly to the wiring in the below image. I also have a 10uF cap to ground on the Arduino Uno (programmer) Reset pin. https://www.arduino.cc/en/uploads/Tutorial/ArduinoUNOtoUNO_ISP2.jpg
    • Two 100nF power supply filtering capacitors are located close to the chip for better stability.
    • I have tested two PCBs / ATMEGA644P chips with the same result. I’ve checked the soldering integrity of the circuitboard. The ATMEGA644P chips are bought from DigiKey (ATMEGA644PV-10AQ)
  3. The ATMEGA644P core from the MigthyCore bundle

My proceedure:
• My Arduino is running the ArduinoISP sketch
• I select the ATMEGA644P core and the 1MHz internal clock and select “Burn bootloader”. The Arduino IDE informs that the bootloader was burned succesfully.
• I attempt to upload my code and receive variations of the following error messages:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xff
Det oppstod en feil under opplasting av skissen (norwegian translates to “An error occurred for the sketch upload”)

I find it especially odd that the bootloader seemingly burns without issue, but that I’m unable to then upload codes to the ATMEGA644P. Any ideas?

2

Heisann!

Are you able to upload sketches using your Arduino as ISP? You can do this by holding down shift while clicking the upload button.

3

hansibull:
Heisann!

Are you able to upload sketches using your Arduino as ISP? You can do this by holding down shift while clicking the upload button.

I've selected "Arduino as ISP" in the tools menu, but didn't know about the shift+upload. Will try it for the next session.

I ended up looking around for other ATMEGA644P cores to see if I could get them to work. I found Leonardo Miliani's cores GitHub - leomil72/megax4: ATmega644/644P & ATmega1284P core for Arduino IDE. With this package I'm unable to burn the bootloader, but I'm able to upload code if I first burn the MightCore core. However something seems to be up with the arduino pin numbering. I haven't been able to diagnose what goes where quite yet, but hopefully tomorrow. I'll report my findings..

4

Shift-uploading with the MightyCore did the trick! Thank you for the suggestion and for providing these cores! What's the difference between regular upload and shift-upload? I'm happy it's working, but a little puzzled as to why..