Bootloader?

[system]

Hi,
I've just brought myself a freeduino v1.16 (what a great piece of kit) and I'd just love to port my old figforth environment to it.

I have ported forth to dozens of platforms back in the day, but that was back in the 80's using eprom programmers, ICE's and cross-compilers.

I have downloaded AVR studio 4 and i'm all set ready to go. but I have read on some other forums that it is possile to scrub, overwrite or otheriwse break the ISP bootloader if I start uploading code from a source other than arduino.

is this true?

I would have thougt not, but I thought I'd check with the wizkids first.

Kind Regards
CodeMoney

p.s.
anyone out there who has any asm code for setting up the uart for serial coms or even a code example of a simple echo program written in asm would be a great help.

thanks again

[kg4wsv]

I have read on some other forums that it is possile to scrub, overwrite or otheriwse break the ISP bootloader if I start uploading code from a source other than arduino.

is this true?

Not without a hardware programmer. The standard arduino bootloader install sets the fuses so that the bootloader cannot be overwritten.

There is a brownout condition (uploading when operating somewhere less than 5V) that can cause some data corruption. Other than that, it would require a hardware programmer.

If you have the ability to overwrite the bootloader with a hardware programmer, then you also have the ability to put it back.

-j