avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hello, first of all, I would like to say that I have purchased tons of official arduino boards, but I hate reusing the boards from project to project so I thought I could buy a few clones for ~$3 each. I purchased this pro mini clone: New Pro Mini atmega328 5V 16M Replace ATmega128 Arduino Compatible Nano | eBay. However, when I try to upload a sketch to it via a FTDI board it give an error "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"? I know the FTDI board works fine with my other official pro mini arduino.

I connected the clone to my arduino uno like this diagram http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Tutorial/arduinoisp.png and got it to upload the sketch to the clone via the uno. That works but it's a pain in the butt.

Does anyone have any idea why the FTDI doesn't work?

Thanks!
Tyler

2

Remember that once you have use an ISP to upload a sketch you have wiped out the bootloader and can no longer upload through serial. To fix that you have to upload a fresh bootloader.

Maybe the board did not have a good bootloader when you got it. Try uploading the Arduino Pro Mini bootloader and then trying the FTDI cable again.

3

johnwasser:
Remember that once you have use an ISP to upload a sketch you have wiped out the bootloader and can no longer upload through serial. To fix that you have to upload a fresh bootloader.

Thanks I did not know that. I uploaded a new boot loader via the uno and still the FTDI does not work. Also when I connect the FTDI, the board flashes about 20 times a second but if I jumper the VCC from the header to the VCC on the board it goes back to flashing once a second.

I am thinking it is a problem with some of the pins. When I use my multimeters continuity testing it says that the RXI pin is connected to the VCC pin. But not the VCC on the header. I made a pic showing what pin is connected to what.

Thanks!
Tyler

Edit:
By the way, on the back of the board it says "Deek-Robot"

4

RXI should definitely not be shorted to VCC. Examine both traces under magnification to see if you can find the short.

5

johnwasser:
RXI should definitely not be shorted to VCC. Examine both traces under magnification to see if you can find the short.

Yeah, that is what I was thinking. But I've looked at the board and I can't find anywhere on the board where the RXI is even close to VCC?

Thanks
Tyler

6

MrPenguin9:
I've looked at the board and I can't find anywhere on the board where the RXI is even close to VCC?

What about that surface-mount device next to the words "Pro mini"? it has RXI connected to one end and VCC connected to the other. Perhaps it is shorted?