Freeduino Programming Problems

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hey Arduino community!

Just assembled a freeduino and hooked it up to my computer to run the infamous blink test, and my computer can't seem to communicate correctly with the board. When I plug my freeduino up to my computer (windows 7), it shows up under the device manager as USB Serial Port (COM3), and I can select COM3 from the arduino software. I choose 'Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega328' from the Board menu (yes, my freeduino has the ATmega328.). When I go and hit 'upload', everything hangs for about 5 seconds, the RX light blinks three times, another 10 seconds go by, and then I get an

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

error. I tried hitting the reset button at all odd times and intervals with no success. (If it means anything, I never get any response from the reset button... is it supposed to flash the 13 pin LED? If so, do I need to install a bootloader? When I try to do that through the arduino software I get an

avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"

error.) I updated my drivers for the usb-to-serial port, and have tried multiple USB cables, all with no luck. When I run the Serial Monitor in the arduino software and plug in my freeduino, I get a constant stream of this error:

Error inside Serial.serialEvent()
java.io.IOException: Bad file descriptor in nativeavailable
at gnu.io.RXTXPort.nativeavailable(Native Method)
at gnu.io.RXTXPort$SerialInputStream.available(RXTXPort.java:1532)
at processing.app.Serial.serialEvent(Serial.java:215)
at gnu.io.RXTXPort.sendEvent(RXTXPort.java:732)
at gnu.io.RXTXPort.eventLoop(Native Method)
at gnu.io.RXTXPort$MonitorThread.run(RXTXPort.java:1575)

Please help--this is all very frustrating as I am very excited to start raising havoc-- er, working on school projects with my new microcontroller. XD

Thank you very much in advance!

2

I had the same problem. When trying to burn the very first blink program the following error appeared.

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

I searched a lot and found a little.
The Freeduino comes with multiple variants of ATMEL processor. Check the ATMEL chip version that you have on the board, which would be available on the top of the chip. The one that I had on my board was ATMEGA8A-PU.
Use IDE 1.0.5. Install the driver for (CP210x_VCP_Windows) UART from Silicon Labs.

Under IDE 1.0.5 tools/serial port/ choose COM22.
Under Tools/Board/ choose Arduino NG or older w/ ATmega8.

I was able to write to the board there after.

3

Let us know if that solved your problem.

4

Which "Freeduino" are you using? Built from a kit, or raw parts?

When I go and hit 'upload', everything hangs for about 5 seconds, the RX light blinks three times, another 10 seconds go by, and then I get

Does the Pin13 LED blink at all during this? It should flash 3 times, rapidly.

I tried hitting the reset button at all odd times and intervals with no success. (If it means anything, I never get any response from the reset button... is it supposed to flash the 13 pin LED?

Hitting the reset button should also result in 3 rapid flashes on pin13.

If so, do I need to install a bootloader?

Maybe. The symptoms match not having a bootloader on the AVR. (they match the USB circuitry working, but no response from the AVR, which COULD be caused by a lot of things: no bootloader, chip inserted backwards, wrong resistor in the reset circuit, pins missing the socket, ...)