AVR-Chat

Hi,

Recently I heard of the possibility that flash memory of
AVRs might be corrupted due to voltage spikes (originating
in static or in-circuit). Is there any merit to that? If
so, how do I protect my AVRs from getting corrupted?

Thanks,
Marc

> Hi,
>
> Recently I heard of the possibility that flash memory of
> AVRs might be corrupted due to voltage spikes (originating
> in static or in-circuit). Is there any merit to that? If
> so, how do I protect my AVRs from getting corrupted?
>
> Thanks,
> Marc
>

Hello, Marc -

It is my understanding that most of the "corruption" occurs during voltage
dips. It is my further understanding that use of the Brown Out Detector
pretty much eliminates that.

Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Marc R.J. Brevoort" <mrjb@dnd.utwente.nl>
To: <AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:54 PM
Subject: [AVR-Chat] prevent attiny2313 flash corruption


> Hi,
> 
> Recently I heard of the possibility that flash memory of
> AVRs might be corrupted due to voltage spikes (originating
> in static or in-circuit). Is there any merit to that? If
> so, how do I protect my AVRs from getting corrupted?

Put a TVS like an AVX TransGuard across the supply.

Leon
--
Leon Heller
Amateur radio call-sign  G1HSM

You need to make sure that the write will complete before power goes
out of spec.
You also need to make sure that the address you're writing to is
correct, and that the data is correct.

Generally, when not actively using the EE, I leave the EEAR pointing
at 0x00, so that a wild write for whatever reason, should overwrite
this address, which I dont use.

When I set up a program to specifically investigate this in the 8515,
I never caught a single instance of EE corruption, when the code
followed the rules above.

Maybe one other complication could be the low power crystal
oscillator, that has the magic ability to hose up anything..
Never use the low power crystal oscillator!