Problem loading to EL Sequencer via FDTI basic board

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I am trying to load a sketch to a Sparkfun EL Sequencer board through a Sparkfun 5v FTDI Basic breakout board. I keep getting the message

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

The red tx light flashes on the FTDI when loading, but nothing else. I have resoldered, re-installed drivers etc, and this is really starting to do my head in. To make things worse it worked a couple of times when I first got the board. Does anyone have any advice?

Many thanks,

Jonathan

2

Drawing of how things are wired up?

Maybe you just forgot the reset signal, or RX/TX are reversed.

3

I have the FTDI board attached to the sequencer by pins as recommended, so that should work fine - but can you explain the reset signal to me? I'm pretty new to this...

Many thanks,

Jonathan