Failing to flash Bootloader to Custom Uno PCB

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

I designed a Custom PCB for a specific application, now I'm trying to flash the Bootloader to this Board.
When trying to Burn the Bootloader with an Arduino as the ISP I get the following Error message:
avrdude: Device signature = 0xffffff (probably .reduced_core_tiny)
This leads me to believe that a Data-Line is shorted to VCC, however this doesn't appear to be the case when I check the Connections with a Multimeter.

When trying to flash with an AVRISP MKII I get the following Error message.
avrdude: stk500v2_command (): command failed
avrdude: stk500v2_program_enable (): bad AVRISPmkII connection status: 0x00 Unknown status
avrdude: initialization failed, rc = -1
Double check connections and try again, or use-F to override this check.

See Attachment for Schematic.
The Resistors aren't populated.

Arduino-Schematic.PNG
Arduino-Schematic.PNG691×512 8.32 KB

2

One thing you need to watch out for when you're working with a chip that doesn't have an external clock source is if you select a board from the Tools > Board menu that has its fuses configured for an external clock (as is the case with all the standard ATmega328P based boards), then do Tools > Burn Bootloader, it sets the fuses on your ATmega328P to require the non-existent external clock source, which "bricks" the chip until you can connect an appropriate clock source to it. That causes the sort of error you're seeing.

There are 3rd party hardware packages that provide boards definitions to use the internal oscillator. My preference is:

but note that once the fuses are set for external clock, even if you have a board definition for internal oscillator selected it will still require the external clock connected long enough for you to set the fuses.

3

So I tried soldering on an untuched ATMega and using the Package you provided.
I set the following Board Options:
Board: ATMega328
Bootloader:yes
Clock:8MHz internal
Compiler LTO: disabled
Variant: 328p
BOD: 2.7v

This gave me the following Error Message:

avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Dec 16 2016 at 13:33:19
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\MiniCore\hardware\avr\2.0.1/avrdude.conf"

Using Port : COM10
Using Programmer : stk500v1
Overriding Baud Rate : 19200
AVR Part : ATmega328P
Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
PAGEL : PD7
BS2 : PC2
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :

Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff
flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff
lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00

Programmer Type : STK500
Description : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware
Hardware Version: 2
Firmware Version: 1.18
Topcard : Unknown
Vtarget : 0.0 V
Varef : 0.0 V
Oscillator : Off
SCK period : 0.1 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0xffffff (retrying)

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0xffffff (retrying)

Error while burning bootloader.
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0xffffff
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

avrdude done. Thank you.

4

I'd say that proves that the fuses issue is not the cause of the problem.

5

Any tips on how to continue troubleshooting this Issue, given that none of the Data Pins are shorted to Ground?

6

I notice you have 2 Reset leads designated. Make sure you are using the one on pin 29.