USBtiny problems in Ubuntu

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I've been trying for several days to figure out why avrdude doesn't seem to be able to deal with my USBtiny. I'm strictly a hobbyist, with very little electronic background at this point so I concede I may just be overlooking something obvious, but I'd sure appreciate a pointer if somebody has one.

Here's the output from running it. The programmer is connected to an Atmega target board from Evil Mad Scientist with an Atmega 328p on it.

ubuntu# avrdude -p m328p -c usbtiny -t -vvvv

avrdude: Version 5.10, compiled on Jul 16 2010 at 22:15:21
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, (link deleted)
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

System wide configuration file is "/usr/local/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
User configuration file is "/home/jhalpin/.avrduderc"
User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

Using Port : /dev/parport0
Using Programmer : usbtiny
AVR Part : ATMEGA328P
Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
PAGEL : PD7
BS2 : PC2
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :

Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

eeprom 65 5 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack

signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00

Programmer Type : USBtiny
Description : USBtiny simple USB programmer, (link deleted per editor)
avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Using SCK period of 10 usec
CMD: [ac 53 00 00] [00 00 00 00]
CMD: [ac 53 00 00] [00 00 00 00]
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

avrdude done. Thank you.

Thanks

Joe

2

Does the green power LED come on at all?
Does the red LED come on if you start avrdude?

Did you set the "feed power to target board" jumper?

Just to eliminate a permission problem, try running avrdude as root (or with sudo).

3

Yes, the green led comes on, and the red led flashes momentarily when the command is issued. Also I'm using the jumper to power the target board, and running it as root.

I've tried this on Ubuntu 10.x and 9.x with pretty much the same results. I think the problem is that the USBtiny doesn't show up as a device node under /dev for some reason. I've tried playing with udev rules to make it show up and then specifying that node in the command, but that doesn't work either.

I'm wondering if my programmer is busted. I don't see any soldering problems, but I might have messed up something there. Dunno.

I'm trying to program a Pololu Baby Orangutan with this, maybe I should get their programmer?

Thanks

Joe

4

Have you tried burning a bootloader via the IDE with it ?

5

It won't show up as /dev/usbtiny or something similar.

On my system it is visible as "/dev/bus/usb/002/044" and the udev rule is this:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="1781", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0c9f", MODE="0666" # USBtiny

Without anything connected to the usbtiny the red led flashes briefly when running avrdude. Also the well known error message

avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

is displayed, which looks pretty much like what you get. Maybe you've just got an error in the wiring or a missing crystal / wrong fuse settings.

Edit:

doesn't your target board come with a mega48 mcu? Therefore '-p m328' can't work.

6

hi joe,

we do not see any messages from you in our forums on adafruit - if you're having trouble with the usbtiny please stop in and post up so we can assist you, thanks!

adafruit support