Trouble with Arduino NG

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Troubleshooting
1

Hi all,

I've been given an NG to tinker with from my tutor and I'm already having issues uploading the basic blink sketch as recommended on the main site .

This is the error I'm receiving:

Binary sketch size: 858 bytes (of a 7168 byte maximum)

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

I think I may just have all my settings wrong as a lot of the info on the website is penitent to the Diecimela and not its predecessor so I'm not sure which boxes to tick if you like.

Thanks in advance, :smiley:

Newbie Terri

2

Well the IDE can't talk to the bootloader.

First step - do you have the right board selected in the "Tools" -> "Board" drop down?

3

Hi, thanks for the prompt response,

I've got an NG ATmega8, so have selected "Arduino NG or older w/ ATmega8"

I'm relatively confident that's the correct option as I can see these details printed on the board itself.

...

4

Have you tried hitting the reset button on the board and then clicking on the upload button in the arduino software immediately after that?

This works for me, I hope it will work for you as well.

:slight_smile:

5

Yes, I believe I have :slight_smile: It's the black button right on the front right? It makes the board/LED stop blinking for a bit.

I've reset before and after uploading, but I still get the error. I had a Diecimila before with version 9 of the software and I managed to get it all working. I've deleted all the software and tried with the newly downloaded 11. I'm not sure if the libraries are all jumbled up or something...

Being a noob it's pants. ;D

6

I don't have an NG to play with so I don't know that board first hand.

If you put an LED on Pin 13 and GND you should be able to see what the board is doing to some degree. When you power up or reset the board you should see the LED blink very rapidly as the board starts up.

After startup the LED should stop blinking, unless your ATmega8 came preloaded with the blink program which blinks the LED every second.

I am assuming your board is the old NG board with the ATmega8 and USB, is that right?

is this it?

The reset switch is to the right of the oscillator crystal and to the left of the ICSP 6pin 2x3 header

What kind of computer do you have and what OS are you running?

:slight_smile:

7

No worries, thanks for your help, I really appreciate this (thanks everyone) :sunglasses:

I've got the LED blinking (albeit dimly) rapidly, but I remember once the sketch is successfully uploaded the blinking is more leisurely.

The LED does stop blinking when I push the button

That is the board I'm using though. :slight_smile:

8

Oh and I'm running this all off of my Macbook (OSx, Leopard) and I've got version 11 off the software. I was recommended using an earlier version of the software in case this arduino couldn't cope. :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Versions 0011 and 0012 both work fine for me on Linux using /dev/ttyUSB0.

Have you tried versions 0012 and 0010?

Is the software seeing your USB ports? Does the arduino board get detected by your kernel when you plug it in?

"dmesg" inside a terminal should tell you, since OS X is BSD based.

On linux using the FTDI cable you'd see something like this

usb 2-6: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
usb 2-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
ftdi_sio 2-6:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
ftdi_sio: Detected FT232RL
usb 2-6: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usb 2-6: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
usb 2-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 2-6: Product: TTL232R
usb 2-6: Manufacturer: FTDI
usb 2-6: SerialNumber: FTDxxxxx

:slight_smile:

10

When you get it working, you can use this code to turn the LED on and off by sending 0 and 1 via the USB interface.

int ledPin = 13;

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
    if (Serial.available()) {
    delay(100);
    while (Serial.available() > 0)
    {
int blink=Serial.read();
Serial.print("0 = off; 1 = on");
Serial.print("\n");
if(blink == 48)
{
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
}
if(blink == 49)
{
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
}
}
}
}

:slight_smile:

11

Have you checked the permissions on your USB devices?

:slight_smile: