AVR-Chat

Yeah I actually ran through the manual upgrade already.

The AVRISP2 must be bad, I can't get it to connect to any of these chips and everyone else seems to be out of ideas.
If they'll give me my money back I'll just grab a USPS flat rate box and send it back for 5 bucks.

I'm not looking at the Pololu just because it's cheaper.
But it's an alternate within my price range.

It doesn't seem to be worth exchanging it for another AVRISP2 I've found endless people having problems with this thing, or getting bad ones out of the box etc. But maybe I'm wrong


I see the USBtinyISP kits but I don't know if I feel like putting them together.
Would it be that much better?

Thanks,

Kenny

----- Original Message -----
From: "bit_tricks" <bit.tricks@gmail.com>
To: AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 7:01:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [AVR-Chat] Re: AVRISP -> AtTiny Communication Problem

--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com , "Kenny M." <kenny782@...> wrote: 
> 
> Yeah I got the mine from DigiKey for $35. 
> 
> Well since I'm just doing this as a hobby. 
> So I don't know when I'll use this again after this project. 
> So affordable equals dirt cheap LOL :p 
> 
> So for the basic use I have I guess the Pololu AVR ISP should do what I need just fine? 
> 
> Hopefully DigiKey will give me a refund and not just a credit. 
> 
> Thanks for the input. 
> 
> -Kenny 
> 

If you are trying to return the AVRISPmkII and purchase the Pololu AVR ISP just because it costs less, you may as well just keep the AVRISPmkII. You will spend the difference in price just on shipping charges alone. However, if you are convinced that your AVRISPmkII is defective, that is a different issue. 

I assume since you are still in the market for a programmer that your AVRISPmkII is still giving you problems. Have you tried to MANUALLY upgrade the firmware? The procedure is outlined in this document: 

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/AVRISPmkII_UG.pdf 

Seems to me like I was able to revive an AVRISPmkII that exhibited the same "orange blinking light" behavior that you described earlier in this thread. Since the unit I repaired had previously been used by someone else, I'm uncertain how it arrived at that state. Anyhow, the manual firmware upgrade may be worth a try at this point. 

HTH, 
Rick

--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, "Kenny M." <kenny782@...> wrote:
>
> Yeah I actually ran through the manual upgrade already.
> 
> The AVRISP2 must be bad, I can't get it to connect to any of these chips and everyone else seems to be out of ideas.
> If they'll give me my money back I'll just grab a USPS flat rate box and send it back for 5 bucks.
> 

Well, unfortunately, I don't have any new suggestions to add.

If you have performed a successful manual upgrade, and are still receiving an orange blinking light, then I suspect a wiring issue.  It could be on your reset line and/or the ISP interface.

If the programmer is happy with the ISP connections, but you can't program the chip, then I suspect either the wrong device is selected or the ISP frequency is set too high in AVR Studio.

If you would like to try a different programmer, I suggest the Atmel AVR Dragon.  It costs $49 from Digikey.  It will do everything the AVRISPmkII will do plus it will perform JTAG and debugWire emulation for devices with 32kB of flash or less.  I don't believe your ATtiny15L's support JTAG or debugWire, but you might want this capability for a different micro in the future.

Rick