Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

USB AVR Programmer and SPI interface. Adafruit's USBtinyISP.

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WANG48188
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

Post by WANG48188 »

support_bill,

I followed one of the suggestions in the link, and tried another laptop with Windows-XP. Same faults.

Let me summarize what I have done:

- mainly Windows 7 (or Windows XP)
- delete and uninstall all copies of Arduino software
- download the zip-file "Adafruit Arduino 1.05 - Win 11-11-13" from Adafruit website
- unzip the file into C:\Adafruit, and then move the main contents under C:\Adadruit\Windows\ to C:\Adafruit\
- install the device drive while plugging Gemma (one time process)
- add directories to the Windows' environment for accessing avrdude.exe, avrdude.conf, and drivers
- use dos command "avrdude -c usbtiny -p attiny85" to verify the changes
- create short cut for running C:\Adafruit\arduino
- start arduino software, and select Gemma 8MHz board and USBtinyISP programmer
- compile and upload a simple program (Blink)
- error while uploading

************************** Note *******************
(1) The Gemma's red LED kept blinking and never stop
(2) The Windows' Device Manager kept detecting new hardware and repeatedly installing the driver, even the device showed up correctly as "USBtinyISP".

Is it possible the Gemma never leaves the boot-loader mode? I purchased two Gemma's, and they behave the same.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The Windows' Device Manager kept detecting new hardware and repeatedly installing the driver, even the device showed up correctly as "USBtinyISP"
Yes. Unfortunately the temporary nature of the bootloader USBTinyISP emulation tends to confuse Device Manager.
The Gemma's red LED kept blinking and never stop
...
Is it possible the Gemma never leaves the boot-loader mode? I purchased two Gemma's, and they behave the same.
The Gemma has a 'blink' program installed by default. That is a simple on/off blink. The bootloader is more of a 'throb' than a 'blink. Do you see a subtle difference in led activity for about 10 seconds after you press the reset button.

WANG48188
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

Post by WANG48188 »

The red LED kept blinking for far more than 10 seconds. After the reset button was pushed and released, the red LED went off first, and then resumed blinking. Also, it seems, sometimes without any action, the LED could be solid on for a brief moment, and then resumed blinking.

The blink program is modified to just turn off the PIN=0 output. This is to check if the program is truly loaded.

Is it possible that the boot loader is over-written and malfunctioned during the process of correcting the Windows' environment and hardware settings?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It is possible. The bootloader is not protected on these processors. There is a bootloader repair procedure if you have an UNO: http://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-t ... bootloader

Otherwise, contact [email protected] with a link to this thread and we can replace both of them for you.

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czaram
 
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Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:40 pm

Re: Gemma's red LED keeps blinking

Post by czaram »

I am having the same problem, both with a new Gemma and new Trinket. I've gone through the same process as wang48177, get the same "AVR device ready" response in my command prompt, get the same error message in Arduino when trying to upload, get the same persistent red light blinking.
3-7-2015 9-36-08 PM.jpg
3-7-2015 9-36-08 PM.jpg (33.17 KiB) Viewed 839 times
Has there been any solution other than the Uno-to-bootloader? Or do I need to return these?

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