Trinket Pro 3 issues?

[paulosophy]

I now have 38 Pro Trinkets that won't let me upload...

[adafruit_support_mike]

Given the number of Pro Trinkets we've made, the testing we do before hardware is approved for sale, and the data on errors and hardware failures we've collected since the Pro Trinket was released, that kind of failure rate is statistically on the order of winning the lott-ery in all 50 states on the same day.

It is overwhelmingly likely that something in your operating environment is contributing to the failures.

You can adapt an FTDI cable or FTDI Friend to program Pro Trinkets using Pogo Pins. The most repeatable solution would be to make a programming jig similar to the ones we use for testing:

https://learn.adafruit.com/how-to-make- ... n-test-jig
https://www.adafruit.com/products/394

[adafruit_support_rick]

You'll have to solder male headers.

We don't usually see the kind of problems you're having with USB. There must be something about your setup.

[paulosophy]

THANK YOU.
This is the kind of response I was hoping for. I'm glad to hear you think it's crazy unlikely! I think that too, but of course I can only report what I'm seeing. If there's a setup change I can make that would be phenomenal. If it's a problem between keyboard and chair I hope you'll be gentle. Thanks for all your help!

Please let me know if there is anything I could change about my setup below!
I've ordered an FTDI cable and I'll try that on the boards that are failing.

// Testing on a MacBook Pro, using IDE 1.6.5:
Sometimes it seems like the bootloader is crapping out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLV6LmYM5pQ
I was assuming that was related to the USB cable (like a fault connection could cause the bootloader to trigger in strange ways), so I tried with 3-4 different cables with the same behavior. This particular Pro Trinket is soldered into a project, but I see the same behavior with other Pro Trinkets and other cables (so I don't *think* it has to do with soldering).

// Test setup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgHzH-br3tQ
1. First board: test with 4 different USB cables, everything works.
2. Second board:
a. Cable A: Trouble getting into bootloader mode, signature errorrs, usb errors
b. Cable B: usb timeout (retry SPI commands)
c. Cable C: usb timeout (retry SPI commands) x 2
d. Cable D: usb timeout (retry SPI commands)

// Series of attempts to upload:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElimAdAmowo

// From Macbook Pro with an externally-powered hub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjrIj2kx8JY

[hiduino]

Were you able to try the pull-up on the Rx pin? It really makes a difference on my ProTrinkets during uploads. Without the pull-up it behaves a lot like your examples. You'd be surprised of how much RF noise is out there.

I should add that this issue is more prominent with the Lipo board mounted vs without it. Not sure if the Lipo board is adding to the noise level.

[paulosophy]

@hiduino - I didn't try it yet! Wanted to fully characterize the issue before I tried that fix. I'm also not quite sure I understand how RF noise would influence this sort of thing?

Here's the circuit I'm planning to make, does that look right to you? 10K resistor between RX and 3V?
http://i.imgur.com/lBM3zle.jpg

[hiduino]

Yes, that looks correct.

Again I say you would be surprised of how much noise is out there. I should clarify that noise could also be coming in from the USB power connector as well. Any noise on the Rx pin will interrupt the USB bootloader and trigger the Optiboot bootloader and cause these upload errors. Due to manufacturing tolerances I suspect some Trinket Pro's may be more susceptible than others to noise. I've seen some differences on a bunch of my Trinkets.

[hiduino]

It's possible to setup the internal pull-up resistor on the Rx pin in the bootloader code instead. This will be a simpler method than adding an external pull-up resistor.

You can try to update the bootloader, See this tutorial, https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing- ... bootloader
But use this fix here, viewtopic.php?f=52&t=78174#p402239

[paulosophy]

@hiduino

I tried the external pull-up resistor. It might be helping with the weird bootloader behavior (hard to tell - that wasn't easy to reproduce always), but unfortunately it's not having any effect on the usb timeouts.

When I tried to reprogram the bootloader, it regularly fails with "signature fail."

I feel stuck and not sure what else to try.

[hiduino]

A signature failure is most often connection problems. Do you have anything else connected to the pins?

[paulosophy]

Oh connection problems? That makes sense: most of my boards don't have any pins soldered to them, so I was just physically holding the wires on. I got some little jumper cables that should clip onto the board I'll try that instead.

But still... adding the external pull-up should have fixed things if that was the issue, right? I'll try changing the bootloader, but I'm not sure it's really the core issue..

I guess I need to find a new computer to test on since that's the last remaining thing I can change.

[hiduino]

If you were holding the external resistor then it also could have not made a good contact, which may have not worked effectively. Yes, you do need to have some kind of clip-on probe connection or make a jig with push-pins.

These work great, https://www.adafruit.com/product/2617, but unfortunately they are out of stock.

[paulosophy]

Great recommendation! I got some from my engineering support team. I'll try this tonight.

[paulosophy]

Update:
1. I lent someone my Uno so I haven't been able to try updating the bootloader.
2. I tried to upload to the 38 weird Pro Trinkets on my Windows machine: same behavior
3. I tried uploading from Mac and Windows with an external pull-up resistor on Rx. I didn't see any difference.
4. On my Windows machine I did all the changes here: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=45541
After that, I was able to upload to 4 boards reliably. The rest still fail consistently. Sometimes it's usb timeouts, often it's "verification errors".

What else can I change about my setup to get this to work?

@adafruit2, @adafruit_support_rick, adafruit_support_mike, any ideas?

[paulosophy]

Oh - my FTDI cable arrived yesterday and got delivered to my apt complex office. I'll drive home at lunch and pick it up, and retry again with that.