I've got the barebones PCB (they released the design online), and soldered the parts on the board. I'm pretty sure after my multimeter rang for all the connections which mattered, there are no shorts or mis-soldered connections.
The board is detectable via a COM port, so check that.
Supply to the chip, check,. GND, check. RST, check. Rx and Tx to the resistors leading to the FTDI chip, check.
The problem is when I'm trying to load a simple blink, the message "Failed to communicate with the chip." is given so it may be a hardware issue. The current drivers work for the exact same other boards. I only have 4 now for a prototype project, and the board is discontinued so you might be able to feel my jitters here for backups.
What are the other things that I might have to look into?
99% of naked chips are dumb.
In the case of Arduino boards for example, they are pre-loaded in protected memory with a ‘bootloader’ that negotiates and accepts uploads from a specific program.
If the chip doesn’t already have a bootloader installed, you must use the ICSP or hardware interface to pre-load a suitable loader for your hardware environment.
Is it possible to use my old Uno as an ISP for a different microcontroller?
I'm trying it out right now. The problem is my target board will be a "Cytron" board, which is different. When I select "Cytron" the option for which programmer to use turns "no programmer detected", and if I proceed anyway (via Shift+upload) it'll give me some Java error.
If no, then I guess I'm going to have to use a universal ICSP device?
