Mega2560 fuse bits not making sense

Hi,
I'm an Arduino newbie, I inherited a project using a Mega2560 board, and I wanted to know how the system and clock speeds/settings had been set with the fuse bits, and it isn't making much sense so far.

Using calls from avr/boot.h, the low fuse bits from:

lcd.print(boot_lock_fuse_bits_get(GET_LOW_FUSE_BITS));
..or
unsigned int low_uint = boot_lock_fuse_bits_get(GET_LOW_FUSE_BITS);
Serial.println(low_uint);

..all show "255".

This is 0xFF, or 11111111..

This implies none of the low fuse bits are programmed ("0" == programmed), which would further mean that an external clock is in use (none is connected.. and the Arduino board has a 16MHz xtal on pins XTAL1 and XTAL2).

The same test using GET_LOW_FUSE_BITS and GET_EXTENDED_FUSE_BITS returns 208 and 253, respectively, and I'm in the process of seeing if those make any sense (page 337 of Mega2560 datasheet).

Any insight is appreciated.

Bill

Try Nick Gammon's sketch: