No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Adafruit's tiny microcontroller platform. Please tell us which board you are using.
For CircuitPython issues, ask in the Adafruit CircuitPython forum.

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
tstarbow
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:10 pm

No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by tstarbow »

I got two trinkets as holiday gifts, a 5V with the micro USB and a 3.3v with the mini. I am seeing the same behavior on both of them. When I plug them in, the green light goes on steady and says on, and the red light goes on steady for 3 seconds and goes out. It is nothing like the 10 seconds of pulsing I see the red light do in the intro to trinket video. Same thing when I press the reset button.
I only care about this, because I can't get a program to load from the Ardino IDE. I have Trinket 8mh selected as the board, and USBtinyISP selected as the Programmer. The error "avrdude: Error: Could not find USBtiny device (0x1781/0xc9f)" seems to be related to the bootloader.
Any suggestions? Is there some step I am missing to activate the bootloader?

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Do you have a Uno? You can reprogram the bootloaders.
https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing- ... bootloader

Otherwise, please email [email protected] with a link to this thread for replacement trinkets

User avatar
tstarbow
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:10 pm

Re: No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by tstarbow »

No luck. I followed the instructions here to setup a little header jig: https://blog.adafruit.com/2013/10/09/ho ... ootloader/, then followed the instructions on the link you gave (https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing- ... bootloader), and after a bit of wiggling and jiggling, I got all the expected output on the serial port, but the behavior of the reflashed trinket is exactly the same as before: after reset the red light goes on solidly for 3 seconds, then goes out. And the Arduino IDE still says "avrdude: Error: Could not find USBtiny device"

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Worth a try. Please email [email protected] with a link to this thread for a replacement trinket

User avatar
tstarbow
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:10 pm

Re: No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by tstarbow »

Ah, I found a description of my problem in the troubleshooting section of Mike Barela's book. He says that combinations of lights means the usb pins are not registering, and that it is most likely a bad usb cable. Sure enough, I tried a couple more cables and I was able to find ones that worked for both trinkets. They are both accepting programming now. Yay!

User avatar
kbell101
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2015 1:26 am

Re: No bootloader pulse, can't find device

Post by kbell101 »

You have described my issue with the trinket to the letter. I've used 3 different USB cables without luck. Even one that I bought from Adafruit. I successfully reloaded the boot loader, but still get the red LED for only a few seconds with no flashing. Using a cheap USB 2.0 hub didn't work either.

UPDATE: Like you, I found the issue to be with USB cables. One that I bought from Adafruit (Item 2379) does NOT send data. This is mentioned near the bottom of the page. I found a couple of old ones in a box of cables and one of them did work. And I don't need a USB 2.0 hub either.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Trinket ATTiny, Trinket M0”