Yesterday my new AVR Dragon arrived and I was anxious to try it out. I have a slew of new ATmega328Ps so I popped a new one into the ZIF socket and attempted to connect to AVR Studio 4.
All was seeminly well. Didn't burn anything though, as it was late into the night before I got everything together.
So now this morning, I boot up the computer... pop a new ATmega into the ZIF, connect... and... FAILED. Every attempt at reading the device signature fails because it says it can't enter programming mode.
Are these atmel factory-fresh chips or could they have been fused for arduino use - then they would need crystals.
I have had avr studio become balky when i disconnected the dragon with the programming control panel open. Usually closing avr studio and re-opening it clears it but I've tried various rituals up to and including a re-boot to clear it.
I have had this problem with chips in the dragon when I ran them in debug mode - this disables isp programming. I have several borked chips waiting for me to figure out high voltage programming.
How did it seem different the first time you tried it and why were you using a different chip today? Did you retry the original?
I have a mix of two types... virgin chips fresh from atmel... and pre-burned chips with the Arduino bootloader on them already from SparkFun. I've tried only the fresh chips in the AVR Dragon.
I have noticed a few quirks like this. Usually if I leave the programming control panel open for an extended period of time while I inspect everything closely, it will hang up on me.
To be perfectly honest with you... I haven't even figured out how to get the board into Debug mode. All I've figured out is ISP! (Completely new to all of this!) And the documentation isn't exactly written for newbies such as myself.
The first time I tried to program a chip, everything "read" ok. Each time I clicked over to a new tab in the programming interface, it read the settings from the chip as expected. Upon attempting this morning, I started with the same chip as last night, but I got a "Fail" on every attempt.
I grabbed a new chip from my drawer and same thing. Third chip I grabbed it seemed to like... and it reported back a successful burn after I set all of the fuses/lockbit -- however, it doesn't appear to have worked because when I pop the new chip into my existing Arduino board, the Arduino software complains that it cannot upload sketches.
When I drop the one chip I managed to burn back into the AVR Dragon, it fails just like all the other chips I've tried.
After this, I stopped trying to read chips for fear I would go through my entire stock ruining chips! I decided to ask the experts!
The first time I tried to program a chip, everything "read" ok. Each time I clicked over to a new tab in the programming interface, it read the settings from the chip as expected. Upon attempting this morning, I started with the same chip as last night, but I got a "Fail" on every attempt.
I grabbed a new chip from my drawer and same thing. Third chip I grabbed it seemed to like... and it reported back a successful burn after I set all of the fuses/lockbit -- however, it doesn't appear to have worked because when I pop the new chip into my existing Arduino board, the Arduino software complains that it cannot upload sketches.
When I drop the one chip I managed to burn back into the AVR Dragon, it fails just like all the other chips I've tried.
ok, one thing I can tell you. When an atmega is born at the factory it is fused to use the internal oscillator so you can pop it in a dragon socket and program it. When you set the fuses for use in an arduino you're telling the chip that it will have a clock crystal. Once you've done that it won't work without one. You can recover the chip by resetting the fuses but you'll need a crystal when you do it(possibly by putting it in an arduino).
I suspect you are inadvertantly borking the fuses. Can I ask you to do two things:
post a clear picture of your setup with one of your atmega's in the dragon setup.
explain what fuse settings you are using.
oh and " I decided to ask the experts! " - not so much you may have to wait for one of them to come around but I do have a dragon and I'm no longer afraid to use it.
Generally the dragon doesn't provide power or ground to the target device. The power must be routed via a jumper from the VCC header pins 2, 4, or 6 to either the Jtag header pin 4 or the Isp header pin 2.
Then the ISP may still need to be connected to your 40 pin header via jumpers in order to program the target chip.
My dragon shows traces from the sockets to this header, but not to the ISP or Jtag headers.
It seems I fell into the same trap that baylorbear did. I got a AVR Dragon (ISP) and connected it to my NANO3 (328p) arduino using ICSP connection. I used the USB port for power to the NANO3. I assumed the ISP(Dragon) and ICSP(NANO3) are the same.
Using AVR Studio 4, I tried to read back the signature. I get;
Setting device parameters.. OK!
Entering programming mode.. FAILED!
Leaving programming mode.. OK!
I suspect the ISP fuse is set wrong. By reading many threads I learned the 328p needs HV programming to reset this fuse...darn!
The NANO3 has on-board 16 MHz XTAL. The reset line is available on the board connector. It's OK to erase the entire 328p flash, there's nothing in there that can't be replaced.
I'm looking for suggestions (cookbooks are welcome) on how to HV prog. this 328p and solve this issue.