Preparing to change some 328P firmware, I bought a USBasp programmer off eBay and can't get it installed.
I've tried this site and a dozen similar ones, to no avail. Zadig doesn't detect the device (or at least doesn't show it does), so it can't install a driver for it.
This device is 100% identical to the one I got. The Chip is an ATMEGA8A.
In Windows 7, I plug this onto the USB cable and the device's red LED comes on steady.
Windows shows this error. It then uselessly installs a driver that doesn't work and shows an error in Device Manager. I uninstall the device.
I run Zadig 2.3 in Administrator and it does not show this device at all.
Am I doing something wrong, or have I actually managed to get a dead USBasp?
pert:
In Zadig, you need to select Options > List All Devices.
Yeah, it's not there, though -- only the "Unknown Device" that Win7 errored-out on. When installing the proper Zadig drivers for the USBasp to that entry, it still shows up as a checked problem Unknown Device in Device Manager.
It appears that what I got wasn't a USBasp as we know it (and as I ordered it) after all.
I was looking this afternoon for an eBay listing of this weird device as pictured and finally found one, with this fractured description:
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No need to install the driver
The new type of latest automatic speed adjustment.
Applicable to WIN8.1/8/7/XP 32-bit/64-bit, system computer.
The product can be connected directly to the computer USB port, and the real USB reader product is connected to the target plate.
As I dimly understand (?) it, plugging this thing into the ICSP port of a hot target device and then into the computer's USB port will result in a magical perfect connection...though (assuming no clouds of acrid smoke) I don't see how one programs anything beyond that point, as the usual applications expect the USBasp rigmarole.
I think I'm going to stick with using the Arduino and leave this to braver and more determined experimenters with a plentiful store of 328Ps to replace the ones they'll probably brick on their march toward new knowledge.
I think that this is what many will receive when ordering USBasp devices, as it seems to be the new thing being drop-shipped for unsuspecting Chinese sellers, irrespective of product illustrations. It may be a giant advancement for all I know (and it's obviously a more complex circuit), but it's not what I ordered nor expected.
I welcome any enlightenment from others regarding this fabulous technological advance. I've found pictures of several slightly different PCB incarnations of this same device, so it looks like it's the coming thing.
