Perfboard/Breadboard Arduino Upload Errors (FTDI Breakout)

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Hi! I've been working with arduino for a while now, but I'm trying to make something more permanent that I can easily program and forget (just plug it in and let it run), but I've been getting a "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0xe0" error whenever I try to upload.

I build exactly this circuit: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone , and I swear I've checked all of the connections a million times by now. I pulled the Atmel chip from a working Uno (already bootloaded) and everything appears to be working alright. Meter reads 5.05v coming out of the FTDI breakout, reset LED (pin13) blinks when I hit the reset button. However, it doesn't blink when I connect power. I've already tried hitting the reset button at different points before/during the compile and upload process and that hasn't fixed the issues. I've also set the board as a Duemanelove 328P in the settings and have tried both USB COM's that show up (on my Mac) when I plug it in.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

-Dtfgator

Update: Just pushed the reset button at a different time (before I hit upload in the IDE) and I got a slightly different error message: "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
" I also have the latest version of the Arduino IDE and I downloaded the FDTI drivers if it helps.

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Sorry for the double post… Just went back and looked at the Duemilanove schematics… Looks like there is a .1uF (100nF) ceramic cap between the DTR on the FTDI chip and pin 1 on the arduino. Do you guys think adding this would fix my problem?

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That capacitor is needed so that the FTDI/Arduino IDE can automatically reset the chip, which is needed by the bootloader/programmer. You can accomplish the same thing by resetting the chip just prior to uploading a sketch. If you are still having problems, I suggest turning on verbose uploading and posting the output so we can help diagnose. Also a photo of your circuit helps just in case there is a wiring problem,