the dreaded initialization failure rc=-1 Gasp!

[atmega644p]

Okay where do I start....sigh.


We have a 2 Batch 4 cupcake kits that required surface mount
soldering. Two motherboards were assembled and soldered by two
different people + one extruder board. All three boards give the same
error when we try to burn the bootloader: initialization failed,
rc=-1


We have tried using a Sparkfun Pocket AVR programmer and LadyAda's
USBtinyISP. We have tried to burn these using Arduino 0017 (w/ all
Sanguino files installed) and using WinAVR-AVRDUDE v5.6

We successfully installed the two separate USB drivers for the
Sparkfun and USBtinyISP programmers. We install and use only one USB
driver at a time depending on the programmer being used.

I will highlight the details using USBtinyISP:

We have checked the wiring on this programmer and our motherboards for
bridging etc. When we plug in the programmer to the MB, and the prog.
into the PC, no LEDs light up on the MB, but a green power light does
come on for the extruder board.

When we try to burn the bootloader, the red light flashes on the
USBtinyISP, but then we get the dreaded rc=-1 error message. We have
tried this fix w/ the fuses also:

http://sanguino.cc/troubleshooting

Same error though.

In fact, here are the various commands we have tried using AVRDude,
but always getting the same error:

avrdude -c usbtiny -p m644p -P usb -v -U flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex
avrdude -c usbtiny -p m644p -P usb -v -B 8 -u -U
flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex
avrdude -c usbtiny -p m644p -P usb -v -B 250 -F -u -U
flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex


Here is the last one we tried w/ the subsequent output in all its
splendor:
C:\Documents and Settings\Student\My Documents\cupcakeCNC
\downloaded_software>avrdude -c usbtiny -p m644p -P usb -v -B 250 -F -
u -U flash:w:ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex

avrdude: Version 5.6, compiled on Mar 5 2009 at 09:59:30
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/

System wide configuration file is "C:\WinAVR-20090313\bin
\avrdude.conf"


Using Port : usb
Using Programmer : usbtiny
Setting bit clk period : 250.0
AVR Part : ATMEGA644P
Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
PAGEL : PD7
BS2 : PA0
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :

Block Poll Page
Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages
MinW Max
W ReadBack
----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------
----- ---
-- ---------
eeprom 65 10 128 0 no 2048 8
0 9000 90
00 0xff 0xff
flash 33 6 256 0 yes 65536 256
256 4500 45
00 0xff 0xff
lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0
0 9000 90
00 0x00 0x00
lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0
0 9000 90
00 0x00 0x00
hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0
0 9000 90
00 0x00 0x00
efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0
0 9000 90
00 0x00 0x00
signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0
0 0
0 0x00 0x00
calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0
0 0
0 0x00 0x00

Programmer Type : USBtiny
Description : USBtiny simple USB programmer, http://www.ladyada.net
/make/usbtinyisp/
avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Setting SCK period to 250 usec
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA644P is 1E 96 0A
avrdude: NOTE: FLASH memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be
performed

To disable this feature, specify the -D option.

avrdude done. Thank you.

Considering we have tried two different programmers, and all 3 of our
boards give the same error, is it possible we somehow destroyed the
ATmega chips? Or did we get a bad batch? Is it likely that two
different people could make the same mistake soldering the two MBs?

I guess the next step is to try troubleshooting w/ an oscilloscope?
Any guidance on this? We did verify 5 V to the Vcc pin on the MB and
extruder coming from the programmer. Or should we take a loss and
just save up to buy the pre-assembled electronics kit for the
CupCakes :-(.


Help ! Gasp!

[TeamTeamUSA]

I just went through this, and I finally discovered Zach's page where
he describes how to upload the bootloader and firmware in one shot via
USBtinyISP:

http://wiki.makerbot.com/burn-custom-firmware-using-arduino

FWIW, you can see all my woes here, how to get the files from svn, and
the mods I had to make to the boards.txt:

http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot/browse_thread/thread/d0b509e5a6ba0ef

Go!

=ml=

>          Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean,http://www.bdmicro.com/