I've been doing some changes on my project lately and, unfortunately, my Arduino stopped working. I thought it's permanently dead, becouse the program uploaded on my Atmega328P did not respond, and after connecting Arduino to USB i had no response in Windows (COM port was not listet on Device Manager).
I spend hours on trying to get my Arduino working, and burned bootloader on new Atmega328P through USBasp programmer (not using Arduino, I just pinned Atmega and all necessary components only to burn bootloader on it). I was pretty sure that when I put it back on arduino DIP28, board will start working as before. Unfortunately, it didn't. All other programms i uploaded through ICSP on Atmega328P was working properly. But i was stuck with no serial port (which i need to observe data).
Then i thought it might be something with Atmega16U2, which is responsible for communication via USB. I connected my USBasp programmer to ICSP1 (pins closest to USB port) and tried to burn firmware on it. But there was no response from microcontroler. Using mkAVRcalculator I was always getting errors that target device is not ready (which I got trying to burn bootloader on Atmega328P without 16MHz quartz.
So, here are my questions:
Is there any way to make sure if Atmega16U2 is dead? If it is, I'll just leave it alone knowing I did everything I could.
If the chip is alive, how to make it work as it should?
Any other suggestions? If i forgot about something, just let me know, I'll give you any information you'll need to solve this.
And the last thing - please don't blame me for my language...
Is there any way to make sure if Atmega16U2 is dead? If it is, I'll just leave it alone knowing I did everything I could.
If the chip is alive, how to make it work as it should?
Yes, there is a loopback test procedure 'sticky' posted somewhere around here that tests the functionality of the USB serial converter independently of the 328P chip.
I keep thinking if there's any chance that this loopback test will work - I've already tried to plug my arduino into usb port while the reset pins were connected to each other. Will connecting RX and TX pins possibly make any change? And finally - which reset pins are we talking about? The button near USB port, reset jumpers on ICSP1 (that closest to USB) or reset jumpers on ICSP on the right side of arduino?
If the USB port is not recognised, then there is no "loopback" test - nothing to loop back!
In the meantime, look for other, more practical problems - loose connections, solder bridges, USB jack broken away from board, etc. If however, the 16U2 does not respond to the USBasp either, that does sound rather bad.
I keep thinking if there's any chance that this loopback test will work - I've already tried to plug my arduino into usb port while the reset pins were connected to each other. Will connecting RX and TX pins possibly make any change? And finally - which reset pins are we talking about? The button near USB port, reset jumpers on ICSP1 (that closest to USB) or reset jumpers on ICSP on the right side of arduino?
Arduino shield connector ground pin to arduino shield connector ground pin. This is to keep the 328p chip inactive during the test, in case there happen to be a sketch running that uses serial communications. And finally jumpering shield connector pins 0 and 1 is required to allow for the serial feeback path for the usb serial converter chip back to the PC.
Paul__B:
If however, the 16U2 does not respond to the USBasp either, that does sound rather bad.
Well, it does not respond, but my last hope is that I'm doing something wrong with the ISPC. When I tried to program Atmega328P I failed trying this via ICSP on arduino - I had to pin everything on a breadboard with crystal and other stuff. Maybe the same thing I should do with Atmega16U2, but I can't (it's an SMD chip).
