Can't install USBasp driver - Windows 7 already has an up to date driver!?!

[Simon Greener]

I am having problems installing the driver on my 32bit Windows 7 system.  I have tried the recommended driver from http://www.fischl.de and the Vista/7 driver from http://www.protostack.com.

In both cases the behaviour is the same.

1. Plug in Figniton to my PC USB port

2. Unrecognised device reported

3. Right click Computer on desktop, Select 'Manage', Select 'Device Manager'

4. Unknown device shown under 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'

5. Right click unknown device, Select 'Update Driver Software...'

6. Select folder containing USBasp driver, click 'Next'

Windows then reports that "Windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date".

No it isn't.

Ideas?

[Steve(spt)]

Yep, I had loads of problem on all windows systems, XP , W7 32 and 64bit systems,  I tried and tried with no luck.

 

But with Ubuntu Linux, worked first time no issues and you will not need the USBasp driver.

 

Avrdude installed on Ubuntu from the software manager.


Steve(spt)

 

 

 

[Simon]

That is intersting.  I happen to have an Ubuntu Natty Narwal live CD.  I'll try booting that and downloading Avrdude.

[Simon]

Some progress for me with the Windows USBasp driver on Windows 7.  However I still have not been able to run avrdude successfully - so beware before you follow this procedure.  I could do with some pointers myself.  I hope what follows is helpful or illuminating for some:

I have installed the driver, from the "Computer Management" screen, Manage Hardware management console.  This was possible only when the Fignition was connected to a USB port with the left button pressed for firmware upload mode (with the LED on).

So, with the Fignition connected in firmware upload mode:

1. Open device manager from the control panel

2. Right click the PC node (in my case Simon-PC) and select add "Add legacy hardware"

 3. Click next

 4. Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list", Click next.

This is where you may not have libusb-win32 devices - in which case I don't know what to suggest.  I have been fiddling with this for days to get it to work, having tried many methods to install the driver only to get the "Windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date" message.

Assuming you do have the libusb-win32 devices hardware type listed:

5. Select "libusb-win32 devices" and click next.

 6. Click "Have Disk..." and locate the folder on your local hard drive containing the driver downloaded from http://www.protostack.com (which appears to me to be the same as that downloaded from  http://www.fischl.de) and click the "Select" button.  The driver is then installed and the new device listed under libusb-win32 devices as "USBasp"

 

At this point I thought I was home free.  Yipeee!  However my attempt to run avrdude –c usbasp –p m168 –u –U flash:w:<filename> (where I supply the filename of the hex file from Julz, located in the current working directory) fails with the error message:

avrdude: no programmer has been specified on the command line or the config file

         Specify a programmer using the -c option and try again

I tried replacing usbasp with USBasp on the command line but that made no difference.

[Simon]

I found a test program called testlibusb-win.exe with the fischl.de driver that seems to recognise the device:

Still no joy with avrdude though.  Anyone else got any thoughts?

[Steve(spt)]

>> Still no joy with avrdude though.  Anyone else got any thoughts?

 

Yes, use a Linux OS!

 

I did 100% same as you with the same results, on a W7 32 and 64 bit.

 

I gave up using a Windows system for this task, Ubuntu 11.04 – worked first time.

 

For none Linux users , Avrdude installs though the software centre, easy.

 

Download the firmware update, it will be saved to your user/home folder.

Open up the terminal/console window and copy / past in the commands.

 

Done!

 

Steve(spt)

 

 

 

[Simon]

Ha ha, yes. I read what you said earlier and even tried installing Ubuntu in a VM on my PC (I only have the one PC to use).  Unfortunately the Ubuntu installer hangs, possibly an issue with Microsoft VM and the Ubuntu kernel.  I can't risk multibooting my PC, I don't have a spare drive anyway and the main disk subsystem is a hardware mirror that I *just know* will cause problems for Linux.

The original Fignition firmware seems to work ok and my Fignition's flash disk seems to work fine too.

[Steve Hearnden]

We should be able to russle up a live-cd / vmware image (of ubuntu) which is minimum needed to install a rom.  I could do either but have no experience. ( > 1 week to get right). 

 

Any other takers?

[Simon]

Microsoft Vitual PC is only for Microsoft OSes... so Oracle have a VM called virtualbox, designed to host Linux.  Giving that a try now.

[Simon]

Ok, Sun Virtualbox is an amazing VM host.  So much better than Microsoft Virtual PC.  Still a waste of time.  BUT....

MAJOR BREAKTHRU ALERT!!!!!  Awooo ga   Awooo ga.  (I'll screw in the blue lightbulb...)

I noted that the command line contain hyphens that looked odd in Ubuntu's terminal window.  One looks a little closer.  You know how Microsoft Word replaces a hyphen with a longer one when you type a word following the hyphen???  Well these looked like that but they look normal in a Windows cmd window - don't be fooled....

So replacing all the - characters on the command line fixed it.

C:\Users\Simon\Desktop>avrdude -c usbasp -p m168 -u -U flash:w:FirmwareRev0_6_0.

hex

avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update

.

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9406

avrdude: NOTE: FLASH memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed

         To disable this feature, specify the -D option.

avrdude: erasing chip

avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update

.

avrdude: reading input file "FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex"

avrdude: input file FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex auto detected as Intel Hex

avrdude: writing flash (13112 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 2.00s

avrdude: 13112 bytes of flash written

avrdude: verifying flash memory against FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex:

avrdude: load data flash data from input file FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex:

avrdude: input file FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex auto detected as Intel Hex

avrdude: input file FirmwareRev0_6_0.hex contains 13112 bytes

avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 1.08s

avrdude: verifying ...

avrdude: 13112 bytes of flash verified

avrdude done.  Thank you.

C:\Users\Simon\Desktop>

You know how cut and paste got many a developer into trouble?  Well anyone can make a mistake (said the darlek climbing down from the dustbin)... 

[Julian Skidmore]

Hi guys,

At LAST!

> MAJOR BREAKTHRU ALERT!!!!!  Awooo ga   Awooo ga.  (I'll screw in the blue
> lightbulb...)

And I'll copy the technique to the main website!

-cheers from julz @P