Help with programming a Melzi board

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Jeffrey Christensen

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Aug 2, 2020, 7:17:17 AM8/2/20
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I'm trying to upgrade the firmware on the melzi board that came in my maker select v2 printer.  I was following this tutorial.

Unfortunately I can't seem to get the bootloader burned.  This is what I'm getting as a result out of the Arduino IDE:


avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x03

avrdude done.  Thank you.

Error while burning bootloader.

at this point, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.  As far as I can tell, the wires are all in the proper spots, theres a light on the the melzi board and the power light on the arduino.  Arduino now default to the ICSP pins, but I didn't have female to female jumpers so I connected to pins 10, 11, 12, 13, 5v and gnd instead.   I then uncommented the corresponding line in the arduinoISP sketch before uploading it to the arduino.  I'm also using one of those Arduino clones i bought a few years back.  

Ray Scheufler

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Aug 2, 2020, 7:53:55 AM8/2/20
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I've had this problem before. Your arduino as programmer is going into reset. As a convenience most arduino are wired up so that when the serial port is opened the reset line gets pullsed low which resets them and puts them into boot loader. Normally this is what you want because the download button in the ide will just work. In your case, that wiring is causing your programmer to reset and its boot loader doesnt look like an stk500. The solution I use is to put a capacitor between reset and ground on the arduino. This buffers the reset pulse enough so that the microcontroller doesnt reset and avrdude is able to talk to the programmer firmware not the bootloader.

Another thing to look out for is what board you have selected. When you burn the programmer sketch you need to have the board that is the programmer selected. When you use the "write bootloader" button you need to have the melzi board selected (the open sketch you have doesn't matter).

Ray Scheufler 

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Bailey Steinfadt

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Aug 2, 2020, 8:12:41 AM8/2/20
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I have an adafruit AVR programmer you can borrow if Ray's hints don't help.

Jeffrey Christensen

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Aug 4, 2020, 12:31:27 AM8/4/20
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I'll give that a try Ray. I think I've got some 0.1ųF polarized electrolytic caps lying around. Will those work? Otherwise what value would you recommend?

Bailey, I'll keep that in mind.

Ray Scheufler

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Aug 4, 2020, 8:05:12 AM8/4/20
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Those will probably work. I dont remember what value I used but I do know it was electrolytic. 

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020, 11:31 PM Jeffrey Christensen <jeffg...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'll give that a try Ray. I think I've got some 0.1ųF polarized electrolytic caps lying around. Will those work? Otherwise what value would you recommend?

Bailey, I'll keep that in mind.

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Jeffrey Christensen

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Aug 14, 2020, 10:02:52 AM8/14/20
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Was not able to get the caps to work.  Granted, I only had 100uf electrolytics and .1uf non polarized caps.  would happily try your programmer Bailey.  I have a programmer, but I can't seem to get the proper drivers for it.  I've also read that updating the programmer might add some functionality.  I have a usbasp programmer.

Jeffrey Christensen

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Aug 22, 2020, 4:16:13 AM8/22/20
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I tried a different computer tonight and was able to get a different error with my USBasp.  Apparently AVRdude gives the error "warning: unable to set sck period.  Please check usbasp firmware update."   Is that offer to borrow the adafruit AVR programmer still valid?

Bailey Steinfadt

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Aug 22, 2020, 12:45:42 PM8/22/20
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Yup! I'll be around tomorrow late morning. If I have my wits about me, I'll bring it with. (Text me before you drive in and I'll let you know if I have it or I'll schedule a time to hand it off.)

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